


That We Might Live

by chordatesrock



Category: Jak and Daxter, Kingdom Hearts, Norse Religion & Lore, The Legend of Zelda
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Betrayal, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Female-Centric, Gen, Minor Character Death, Multiple Crossovers, No Canon Knowledge Required, POV Female Character, Post-Canon, Resurrection, Snorri is an unreliable narrator, healthy Loki/Sigyn, implied offscreen dub-con, non-Disney fairy tales, some but not all dead characters come back, there's something else I could warn for, trickery and deceit, way more fandoms than tagged for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 03:47:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chordatesrock/pseuds/chordatesrock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she learns that the stars are going out, Zelda sets off to find the legendary Keybearer and save as many worlds as possible. Pearl has other ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Zelda landed on a metal street near a body of water. She stopped by crashing into a building. She’d meant to land closer to where she’d seen the Heartless from Gummi Space, but here she was. At least she’d only hit a building, and not a person.

“Needs work,” said Ashei, sitting next to her. “You hurt? I’m not.”

“I’m fine,” said Zelda, though she felt a bit shaken. She retracted the roof, climbed out of the cockpit and came face-to-face with a tall, blonde woman with long ears.

“Hi there,” said the long-eared woman, giggling nervously. “Are you okay?”

Zelda smiled in embarrassment. “I think so. I hope I haven’t damaged anything of yours.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m Tess, by the way.”

“Zelda,” said Zelda. They shook hands.

“Nice to meet you,” said Tess. “So where are you--” Her eyes widened and she cut herself off. “What’s that?”

Zelda turned. Shadow Heartless were coming up from a portal in the ground behind her. “They’re Heartless,” she said, drawing the Master Sword. “Run.”

Tess ran back into the building. Ashei jumped down from the ship. Zelda took a step toward the Heartless, only to see the sky darken. The walls around the still water started to break apart, and pieces went flying toward the crackling sphere of dark power blotting out the light from one of the suns. The winds rushing toward it whipped at Zelda’s hair and clothes.

“Retreat,” she said. “We’re too late.”

As Ashei helped her up into the ship, Tess came back from the building armed.

“Get in!” Zelda called to her. “You’ll die if you don’t.”

Tess climbed up into the cockpit of the Gummi Ship and Zelda closed the roof as soon as everyone was safely inside.

“The Heartless are here to destroy your world,” Zelda said as they lifted off. “Ashei and I came to stop them, but we’re too late. They’ll make more Heartless from the people they kill, and everyone who escapes the Heartless will die when your planet breaks apart.”

“Can you fly by the red zone and pick up my Daxxie-kins on your way out?” asked Tess. “He’s fuzzy and orange and he’ll be with a man in a blue shirt.”

“You want us to save your pet?” Ashei asked, incredulous and disgusted. “There are people dying down there!”

Zelda dipped lower and they flew past metal walkways and square metal buildings.

“That’s them!” Tess shouted. On the ground below, a man with ashen skin and black horns was backed into a corner facing a horde of shadow Heartless. An orange animal tried to climb to safety, and nearly made it before a scarlet robot forced it back down into the midst of the Heartless, where it disappeared from view. The man tried to lunge forward and sank into the darkness that was dissolving the ground. Zelda pulled up and headed for space.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “We’ll take you to Traverse Town. Maybe you can make a life there.” She didn’t suggest that Tess might find anyone she knew; that was so unlikely it would only serve to give false hope.

“Maybe,” Tess said quietly, watching her planet shatter.

If Zelda had been just a bit faster-- but she’d acted immediately when she saw the world begin to break, and gone as fast as it was safe to fly in the atmosphere. She’d never had a chance to save anyone but Tess.

\--

They arrived in Traverse Town in what had to be less than a day. Tess followed Zelda and Ashei off the ship and through the big wooden door of a walled city of steep-roofed wooden buildings. It was night there, with no moon and no green sun, but music played softly in the city square.

Zelda took them to a hotel in someplace called Second District, where it looked like most of the businesses were. She promised Tess that there would be a place for her, a job for her. Tess stayed quiet and took note of the layout of the city and the hotel.

That night, when she finished trying to sort out what had happened, Tess dreamed. It was one of the strange lucid dreams she’d been having lately, and she knew immediately that she was asleep. In her dream, she stood on a stained-glass platform with three stone pedestals. A sword, a staff and a shield rested on the pedestals, and she knew in some dreamlike way that she was supposed to choose between them.

She played along. At least she wasn’t having nightmares, right? She took the shield from its pedestal.

 _The shield,_ something said silently. _The power to protect--_

“Yes!” she shouted. “Yes, that’s what I want! I’m sick of losing people! I want Daxter and Jak and Torn and my family, and Vin, and… everyone!”

She was crying.

_What will you give up in exchange?_

That had to be a trick question. Offense _was_ defense, and magic was for bedtime stories. Savagely, she knocked the staff off its pedestal.

The voice led her along a path of stained-glass floors and shining bridges over an infinite chasm. Mostly, it let her hit things. That was fine with her.

She woke up facedown on her pillow trying to breathe and not getting any air. No wonder the dream ended with her drowning in the same darkness that had taken Jak and Daxter.

She got up, yawned and stretched and realized it was still night, even though she felt rested. That was weird, but she was hungry and ready to start doing things. After smashing things in her dreams all night, she didn’t even feel too bad about losing everything she’d ever known. She was close enough to okay to sweep it all under the rug and pretend it never happened.

She dressed in the same clothes she’d worn on the Gummi Ship. As she was trying to figure out what to do next, there was a knock on her door.

She opened it to find Zelda.

“Hey,” said Tess, smiling.

“It’s almost check-out time,” said Zelda. “I thought I’d warn you. It’s easy to lose track of time here, since the sun never rises.”

“Thanks,” Tess said, her mouth on autopilot while she tried to make sense of what Zelda was saying. So maybe she wasn’t as fine as she’d like.

She picked up the vulcan fury she’d brought with her. It was the only thing she had besides her clothes.

“Talk to Maron in First District,” said Zelda. “She’ll help you get settled in. She was a refugee herself.”

“Thanks,” Tess said again. “Oh, and thanks for saving me.”

“You’re welcome. I would have saved your whole world if I could have,” said Zelda. “I would have tried, even without the Keyblade.”

Tess looked at her quizzically.

“I’m looking for the Keybearer,” said Zelda. “He’ll have a blade in the shape of a skeleton key. If you find him…”

“I’ll tell him you’re looking,” Tess promised.

“Great. Well, I’ll see you around.”

There was an awkward moment as both of them stood there in silence.

“Yeah, see you,” said Tess. “Thanks for everything.” She left the hotel room and Zelda, and headed for First District. It was still dark, but people were out and about.

Tess asked the first person she met in First District where to find Maron. The woman gave her a knowing look and told her to try the Accessory Shop.

Inside the Accessory Shop, three people were deep in conversation: the man behind the counter, a man with goggles like Keira’s, and a short young woman with brown hair. All of them had stubby little ears.

“Excuse me,” said Tess. “I’m looking for Maron. I’m new here.”

“That’s me,” said the woman, turning around to face her. She had an accent Tess couldn’t place. Maron bowed, then looked Tess over. “It’s my job to help you get settled in. Are you ready to start working?”

“What kind of work?” Tess asked brightly.

“Depends on what you can do. Come walk with me and we’ll talk about it.” Maron gestured for Tess to follow as she left the shop. “I’ll take you on a tour of Second District where most of the businesses are. There’s a restaurant and the Accessory Shop in First District, but neither one is hiring. So, what jobs have you had before?”

They entered Second District. “I worked as a bartender before,” said Tess. She left it at that. No need to reveal any secrets just yet.

“Then you’ve-- wait a minute.” Maron went to the edge of the roof they were standing on. Tess followed. She could feel something wrong.

A bell rang.

“That’s not good,” said Maron.

Zelda and Ashei came into view from someplace Tess hadn’t been to yet. Zelda’s hand rested on her sword’s handle; Ashei had a knife in each hand.

Something went wrong in the air in front of the fountain, something that reminded Tess of what she’d seen happen to Haven City. Then the wrongness turned into an armored creature-- or several. There was an armored body, a pair of floating armored arms, and a pair of armored boots that moved all on their own.

Zelda drew her sword, aimed it like a gun and shot a chunk of ice at the monster. As it came closer, Tess took aim with her vulcan fury and fired. In a couple of seconds, she was all out of ammo with no way to get any more, and she had no idea if the creature had even noticed. She threw the gun at the thing’s head. It noticed _that_.

Maron ran for First District. Tess stayed where she was.

The creature’s arm hit Ashei and knocked her to the ground.

That thing was going to kill Zelda and Ashei if Tess didn’t do something. She jumped down to the low ground where the battle was happening. She had to find some kind of weapon, but there was nothing nearby.

She felt something in her hand. Her fingers closed around a faux-leather-wrapped handle. She switched to a two-handed grip because of the weight and charged before she realized what she was holding. Her Keyblade dented one of the creature’s arms, so she hit it again. The arm broke and disappeared.

The other arm came after her, spinning with its claws outstretched. Tess stuck her Keyblade in its path to stop it, and one of Zelda’s fireballs struck and melted the metal.

Tess smashed a boot Ashei had knocked over and struck the limbless body as it came for her. Another fireball from Zelda and a knife thrown in the creature’s face and they were safe.

Tess felt shaky with relief. She glanced around to make sure there wasn’t anything else after them and let the tip of her Keyblade rest on the ground.

“You’re coming with us,” said Ashei.

“If you don’t mind,” Zelda said quickly.

“I don’t mind one little bit,” said Tess. “Let’s go make the creatures that killed my Daxxie-kins wish they’d never been born!”

\--

On a world far from the darkness of Traverse Town, a flat world cradled by ley lines given living form, Pearl Prynne followed Thor to a cave. They could hear a woman’s voice from some distance away, but it was some time before they came close enough to make out her words.

“...So the princess had milk and rosewater brought to the garden, as the snake had bid, and-- oh, hello!” She looked up when she saw them in the mouth of the cave, but didn’t rise, sitting with a bowl in her hands to catch the venom from the snake that stood poised with its mouth open before her. “We have company,” she said, presumably to the man lying between her and the snake, his head directly below her bowl.

The bound man opened his eyes and turned his head toward the mouth of the cave, but stayed silent.

“I’m sorry neither of us is presentable,” the woman continued. “I didn’t know anyone was coming.”

“All the better,” said Thor. “My lady wanted to see how Skadi and I triumphed over a powerful seidmadr. See, Pearl? I told you we had one all trussed up.”

Pearl walked over to the man who was supposedly a powerful wizard and poked him with her finger. He didn’t react.

“Nah, this doesn’t prove anything. He’s a man in chains. So? He could be anyone!”

“He’s Loki! Look, you see his hair?” The roots of Loki’s hair seemed to glow with a flickering light like a tiny flame that might gutter out at any moment. “No one else has hair like that!”

Pearl crossed her arms. “So what? I’ve never heard of Loki before. What’s so impressive about him?”

“He was easily a match for my father. They would go adventuring together-- ask anyone in Asgard! In fact, sometimes I think Loki was better at magic and trickery. Not anymore, of course”-- this last he added very quickly-- “but maybe once.”

“Uh-huh. We’ll just see about that.” If it was true, it was the best news Pearl had heard in ages.


	2. Chapter 2

They landed near a wood-and-stone castle. It was evening there, and the walls and towers cast long shadows.

“Careful of the shadows,” said Zelda. “The Heartless love to lurk in the dark.”

It must keep them hidden, Tess thought. She stood beside Ashei in a patch of light as Zelda called to the guards.

“What’s wrong with everyone’s ears?” one of the guardsmen called down to them.

“Nothing’s wrong. We came from far away, where people are different,” Zelda shouted up at him. “We’ve come because we heard that there might be dark monsters here, and we have the ability to fight them.”

There was a pause. Then the man shouted down, “Wait here while I tell the queens.”

Queens, plural? Tess wondered what kind of government this place had.

It was chilly here; good thing she was wearing the long pants and jacket Zelda had bought for her back in Traverse Town. She stuck her hands in her pockets, careful not to break the fragile bottle of topical healing potion she’d gotten from a purple-haired wizard back in Traverse Town.

Down the hill from them was a walled town with slanted rooftops, which meant snow fell there sometimes. Most of the town seemed to be wooden, which meant trees. That put some kind of an upper limit on how far north they could be, but Tess didn’t remember what.

The castle drawbridge lowered for them and the guardsman called for them to enter. They could see that the courtyard was full of candles, especially along the west wall where the ground would have been in shadow. Inside the walls stood two women in long dresses. The one in dark purple had sparrcrow’s feet and smile lines and snowy white hair. The other had long, flared sleeves, big blue eyes, full lips, and smooth skin.

“This is Her Majesty Queen Ellen, and I am the Dowager Queen Anne,” said the older woman. “As my son is away, you must deal with me.”

Zelda did something that wasn’t quite a bow, with one foot behind the other and slightly-bent knees. “It is my pleasure to make your acquaintances, Your Majesties. I am Zelda, Queen of Hyrule, and my companions are Ashei and Tess. We’re here to help fight the living shadows.”

“That would be most welcome,” the Dowager Queen said skeptically. “We need someone to protect the city come sunset.”

“We can certainly do that,” said Zelda. 

“Good. You do that, and come see me tomorrow morning,” said the Dowager Queen. She smiled a thin-lipped smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You’ll want to head down there now.”

They did.

\--

The sun was halfway hidden when Ashei saw a shadow break away from the person casting it and peel itself up off the cobblestones.

She shouted a warning to the man and put herself between him and his shadow. If the city had been built in stone, she could have started a fire, but that was too risky. Instead, she sliced through the darkness when it struck her. Ordinary blades were almost useless, but it gave Zelda time to run the Shadow Heartless through with the Master Sword.

“Over here!” Tess shouted from just outside a bakery, as five clattering tin Soldier Heartless appeared around her. She hit one hard enough to send it flying into another and stepped out of the circle, turning to face the Heartless. The one she’d hit dissolved, and the one it had crashed into stumbled dazedly in the wrong direction. Zelda sighted along her sword and sent a fireball flying at the one closest to Tess.

The dazed Heartless recovered and swiped at Tess, who took a step backward, lost her balance and hit the bakery door head-first.

Ashei grabbed a potion to toss to her, but then one of the Heartless lunged for Zelda’s heart. Zelda dodged left, but not fast enough, and its claws went through the right side of her chest. The Heartless drew its arm back to strike again. Ashei tossed Zelda the potion and tried to get in front of the Heartless. Tess was faster, and smashed it with the Keyblade. She spun around just fast enough to get her Keyblade between herself and the next Heartless. She swept its feet out from under it as Zelda froze the last Heartless with one of her spells.

Three of them against six Heartless, and they won. Barely. When Zelda and Tess had dealt with the last two, Ashei smiled. “You did okay,” she said.

“Oh, I’m just getting started,” Tess growled.

From the other side of town, they heard screams.

\--

On another world, in the dead of night, Thor’s new lover came back to Loki’s cave. She crouched beside him.

“Can you still do magic?” she whispered.

“Not in chains.” There was almost no chance at all that she was desperate enough for a demonstration to free him. He knew that, even if the look in her eyes and her small, sly smile had him hoping otherwise.

“But if you were free?”

Loki grinned. “Yes.” He tried to keep his expectations realistic. He tried.

Her gaze moved up to Sigyn. “That looks nearly full.” With a flick of her wrist, she conjured a roiling patch of darkness above the bowl. The steady dripping by which Loki measured time ceased abruptly. “Why don’t you go ahead and empty it? In fact, why don’t you go get some rest? I could keep this going all night.”

Sigyn’s smile reached her bloodshot eyes. “Thank you.” She left.

“I think I’d like to rule the world,” said Thor’s lover, “but I need help with that.” She looked at him expectantly.

“I’m in.” 

She made a grand gesture, and darkness rose up around him.

\--

The Keybearer and her companions were dead on their feet by the time they were brought before the queens and learned the casualty count.

“Seven people,” the dowager queen said, echoing the captain of the watch.

“I’m so sorry,” Zelda said, quiet and hoarse. She watched her feet and the rushes on the floor.

“The night before you came, the death toll was fifty-four people,” said the dowager queen. Zelda raised her head enough to see the queen’s tight half-smile.

“God protects and provides for those who love him,” said the younger queen. “I’m so glad he sent you.”

The dowager queen’s half-lidded eyes flicked toward the younger queen, brows lowered. “Stay here and rest today. I’ll have a servant come wake you for dinner,” she said.

“I’ll show you to your room,” said the queen consort. “I should like to talk with you along the way.”

“I can’t promise I’ll be good company,” said Zelda.

“Don’t worry,” said the younger queen, “I understand. Come on, let’s get going.” She gestured for them to follow her as she set off. For the first time, Zelda saw that the hand she gestured with was a silver prosthesis.

“Thank you so much for letting us stay here,” said Tess. “It’s so sweet of you!” Her voice cracked. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to drink, would you? I’m a little thirsty.” She yawned. “And tired. Nighty-night.”

“I’ll have a servant bring you something,” said the dowager queen.

Zelda, Tess and Ashei followed the silver-handed queen into a hallway.

“I prayed for you to come,” Ellen said as they walked. “I’ve faced the forces of the Enemy once before, and I was protected then, too. That was when...” She lifted up her hands. They were both silver.

“Some protection,” said Ashei.

“You could say that,” said Ellen, “but if I still had my hands, I’d still be nothing but a poor miller’s daughter.”

“I’d rather be an able-bodied miller’s daughter than a queen without hands,” said Ashei.

“I can help people now,” said Ellen. “To me, that’s worth it.”

“I would trade so much more than my hands to be able to stop the Heartless.” Zelda’s eyes burned.

“Here’s your room,” said Ellen. “I can’t open the door for you.”

Tess opened it to reveal just one bed, big enough for the three of them. A flagon and three glasses rested on a table.

“Thanks,” said Zelda. “See you when we wake up.”

Tess poured them drinks that turned out to be small ale. Ashei was the only one to drink more than one glass.

The three of them stripped out of the sweaty clothes they’d worn that day and night.

“I’m not enough for this,” said Zelda. “I let seven people die here, and your entire world…”

“Think about it like this,” said Tess. “You didn’t save everyone, but you didn’t just walk away, either. You told me before that your world was protected. You could have stayed there. You didn’t have to fight at all.”

But of course she had to fight; it wasn’t as if she could stand by while people died.

“At least what you do matters,” Ashei muttered. “You and your glowing sword.”

\--

They went to dinner at around midday. It seemed Queen Ellen had insisted that the guests be seated where she could speak with them.

“Why do these creatures menace us?” Ellen asked Zelda.

“I don’t know,” Zelda admitted. “Everything I read claims the Heartless are a natural result of the darkness in people’s hearts, but I don’t believe it. They feel... wrong.” It was hard to describe the way she felt in their presence.

“You can read?” Ellen asked.

“I’m well-educated. You could say it’s my defining trait.” She looked down at the back of her left hand, where, without her gloves, the entire triforce symbol was visible.

“It isn’t,” said Ellen. “You’re godly. That’s more important.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Zelda. It didn’t sound like flattery, not the offhand way Ellen said it.

“You wouldn’t be able to fight those monsters if you weren’t.”

“Ah.” Zelda doubted that. “It’s my sword that lets me fight,” she said. “It’s magic.”

“Could anyone use it?” asked Ellen.

“No. Even I shouldn’t be able to wield it,” said Zelda. “The Master Sword chooses its wielders carefully.” But had she been chosen or was she simply allowed to wield it because Link had entrusted it to her? He was the one who had pulled it from its pedestal; if he were to put it back, could she draw it again? She voiced none of those thoughts, aware that that would be inviting theft.

“Then it’s you, not your sword. God has protected you from sin.” Ellen paused, as if considering whether or not to go on. Zelda would rather she didn’t. “Sometimes I think the church is wrong. It doesn’t seem possible, but I’ve only sinned once. I was vain. But then…” She lifted a hand toward Zelda. Beef stock dripped from the spoon lashed to it. “Anything can be taken away. Just because I’m as pretty as ever doesn’t mean it has to stay that way, next time.” For a moment, her accent slipped. “But I can’t be the best person in the world. And if I’m not the best, then that means someone out there has never sinned.”

“You’re thinking of Jesus Christ, dear,” Queen Anne said quietly.

“I can’t be the best person save him,” said Ellen.

“Most people would say they don’t sin. Most people sin,” said Anne.

“I’m not lying,” Ellen said.

Anne shrugged and went back to her stew.

“I believe you,” said Zelda. “So many would say no one is truly altruistic, but that’s not my experience.”

“Exactly. You know it because you don’t sin either, do you?”

“I was thinking of Link, and Ashei here, and others,” said Zelda, “not myself.”

“So, Your Majesty,” said Queen Anne, “can any of our knights be taught to fight the Heartless?”

“I don’t know. Now that we have the Keybearer with us, all my sources say there should be a way to stop them from destroying your world, but I’m afraid I don’t know what we’re supposed to do…” The fragments of the only Hylian history old enough to mention the Heartless seemed to imply that the Keybearer would do something other than merely fight. The oral history of Snowpeak might have been useful, but tracking down the children of the children of the survivors had proved fruitless. Some of the people of Traverse Town had told tales that might or might not refer to the Heartless at all, and Cid and Leon’s information was spotty at best.

“Is there any way we can help you figure it out?” asked Anne.

“Perhaps. Do you have records from three thousand years ago?” That was the only firm date Zelda had pinned down, though whether it was the only prior Heartless incursion or not, Zelda wasn’t sure.

“We have scripture!” Ellen exclaimed.

“I don’t recall the church having anything to say about the Heartless,” said Anne. “If you ask me, I think some of the clergy are even more clueless than the laity. Perhaps it’s only that they must pretend to know what’s happening and why, and the rest of us can admit we have no idea. Of course, the castle chapel has a Bible that you’re free to peruse if you like.”

“What good are stories about gods going to do?” Ashei asked, perhaps more bluntly than was wise.

“Perhaps none,” said Anne, “but it may be all we can offer.”

Zelda wondered if they should spend the afternoon doing something other than sleeping-- reading their hosts’ scripture, for instance, or looking around-- but she ached all over and Ashei was slumped over, holding herself up with her elbows resting on the table. Zelda thought it would be best if they rested.

Later, she would decide that was a mistake.

\--

The sky was blue but shadows were long the next time Zelda woke. All three of them dressed quickly and Ashei opened the door, on which a servant had been pounding.

“Isn’t it early for us to fight them?” asked Zelda. She glanced at the window.

“It’s not an attack. They came and now they’re gone, and they-- they’ve-- they didn’t kill her. They _took_ her. They took the queen! Her Majesty wants you to come see if you can tell where they took her. Her other Majesty, I mean. You know.”

“Take us there,” said Zelda. The servant led them at almost a run through the castle to the chapel, a small building with wooden benches facing an altar with a picture of a mother and child. Queen Anne was there with several men, which meant it was Ellen who had been taken.

“What happened?” Zelda asked Anne.

“She was in here talking with Father Edward when they took her.” Anne pointed out a man in a black cassock.

“They appeared right in front of the candles, bold as anything,” said Father Edward. He gestured with to his forehead, then his breastbone, then to each shoulder in turn. “Two of them were like tin soldiers, clanking in plate armor. They grabbed her and I thought they were going to drag her away when a shadow from one of the pews rose up and…” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, brow furrowed. “Her heart looked like a gem. I remember that. The shadow’s claws passed through her without leaving a scratch on her body. It-- I’ve seen them take hearts before, but it was nothing like this. Her body didn’t disappear. The tin soldiers carried it away. The shadow might have wanted to eat her heart, but it had no time. Her heart disappeared. I believe she was called to Heaven, protected from the creatures of the enemy.”

“That doesn’t explain why her body didn’t disappear,” said Zelda. None of it made sense. The gemlike heart sounded like a summon gem, but the circumstances of its creation were all wrong and there was no reason for it to disappear if it was a summon gem.

“The bodies of the saints may not rot as those of other mortals do,” said Father Edward. “I wouldn’t have guessed she was a saint, but it is known that she was beloved of God. She was escorted to this place by the angels. It’s possible.”

“Angels. Saints. What are these things?” asked Zelda.

“Fairy tales,” Ashei muttered. Tess was already looking around the rest of the room.

“In truth, all believers are saints, but there are those we venerate for their exceptional holiness. Angels are--”

“Hey!” Tess exclaimed from behind the altar. “Is this supposed to be here?”

Zelda and Father Edward climbed the steps up to the altar and went to see what Tess was looking at. It was a tiny keyhole.

“What are you looking at?” asked Father Edward.

“That,” said Tess, pointing to the keyhole.

“I don’t see it,” said Father Edward.

Coming around to the back of the altar, Ashei peered at the marble. She looked right at the keyhole. “See what?”

“The keyhole,” said Tess. She looked from face to face. “Am I the only one who sees it?”

“I see it,” said Zelda. “I’m used to seeing through illusions, but if you see it, too, then…”

“Oh, I get it!” Tess grinned. “Stand back.”

They stood back. Tess summoned her Keyblade and lined it up with the keyhole. A light shone between them. She turned the Keyblade about a quarter turn and the light and keyhole both disappeared.

A seemingly metaphorical reference in an old history to Heartless being “locked out” became clear to Zelda.

“Tess, Ashei, we need to talk,” said Zelda. “Father Edward, I hope to speak with you later, if there’s time before sunset.” She planned to stay and see what happened come sunset, but she suspected there would be no attacks.


	3. Chapter 3

The Heartless attacked the town that night, but only Shadows. Zelda and the others spent most of the night wandering the streets with their weapons out, ready for a much greater battle than that which they found. When dawn came, they made their report to Queen Anne, rested briefly, and left the world.

On the next world was a civilization with old castles and metal buildings that spewed far too much dark smoke for cooking or warmth. Zelda brought them to the coast, barely within sight of a city, and landed the ship.

“Perhaps I should have set down closer to the city,” Zelda said, with a nervous smile that was half a grimace. She opened the roof. “Shall we have a look around?” She climbed out of the ship.

“Oh, look,” Tess said lightly, “I see people swimming.”

Zelda looked out at the ocean. Amid the sparkling waters were three young women, each with a crown of pearly white flowers. “Hello there!” Zelda called to them, waving. The women swam closer and Zelda walked down the beach toward the water. “Could I ask you something? I was wondering if you’ve seen any strange creatures around, maybe some living shadows that attack people?”

The women in the water looked at each other. “Is that a surface-dweller greeting?” one of them asked.

“Not usually,” said Zelda. “There are some creatures loose that I need to protect people from.”

“We haven’t seen them,” said the woman who had spoken first.

“You could come to the sea floor and ask our father,” another suggested. “He’s very learned, and so is the sea-witch.”

“Can she swim that far without fins?” asked the third.

Zelda thought about that. “I can try,” she decided. “Wait there for me.” She ran back up the beach to the ship and stripped off her long tunic, swordbelt, and shoes. “Can you two stay within sight of the ship until I get back?”

“You don’t have Link’s tunic,” said Ashei.

“I don’t need it. You two should be ready to leave if need be,” said Zelda.

Tess grinned and mock-saluted.

Zelda went back to the shore and waded in far enough that the waves threatened to sweep her off her feet. She made herself ignore how cold it was and ducked under as she started changing herself. This was much harder than disguising herself as a Sheikah, but the principle was the same.

She kicked with legs that were rapidly ceasing to be legs and saw through suddenly-clear eyelids. Her fast-forming swimbladder dragged her down, following the others with their bright red and green tails. Zelda made a few last-minute adjustments to deal with the water pressure.

They came to a castle at the bottom of the sea, surrounded by blue sand and brightly-colored seaweed.

The Sea King was much like any other monarch. The walls of his audience chamber reflected the light of glowing fish schooling near the ceiling, and everywhere appeared to be decorations according to some alien sensibility. It was a show of power and wealth. So must his gold bracelets be, and the gold belt he wore just above the place where his brown skin gave way to a tail like a dolphin.

“My name is Zelda, and I am the Queen of Hyrule,” said Zelda, not knowing this court’s protocol. “I’ve come from far away to defend against the living shadows that--”

“The Heartless,” said the Sea King.

“Yes,” said Zelda. He knew, which meant he might have access to records-- surely not paper or parchment, but possibly an oral tradition of some kind, or engravings...

“And you must be the Keybearer,” he said. She shook her head. Her braid floated into her face.

“Merely her companion,” said Zelda. “Have the Heartless been troubling you? We need accurate information to combat them.”

“The Heartless don’t come down here. Keybearers don’t come from here, either. We have no hearts,” said the Sea King.

But surely hearts were necessary for-- “I see,” said Zelda, neither seeing nor believing. “But you know about the Heartless and the Keyblade, and I confess that I know very little. If you’re willing to tell me what you know…”

He looked at her like she was an earwig. That had only happened once before, and then because the locals had no faith in a woman alone, for all that she couldn’t help that Link had his own quest. For it to happen now that she was able to save people... “What I know is that the last time a Keybearer came around here, it was to threaten to kill us all for being unnatural. It’s said that a Keybearer shattered the world into pieces and built walls between them. I hear a human met a Keybearer the last time the Heartless came, during my fifth-great-grandfather’s reign, and never said a word or did anything ever again. The Keybearer blamed it on the Heartless. He claimed stealing hearts worked differently when the hearts were pure. They say he tried to take her away, claimed she was a princess even when they told him she was a queen dowager, but her sons wouldn’t have any of it. That’s also when the surface-dwellers say the demon wolf first appeared,” said the Sea King. “If you want to risk your kingdom with this person, go on ahead, but keep the Keyblade away from us. You’re not welcome.”

“Thank you,” said Zelda.

“Just get out.”

She did.

\--

Since they didn’t leave the ship at the same time, and they didn’t go out of earshot when they did wander, there wasn’t much they could do while they waited for Zelda.

“So,” Ashei said after the silence had stretched on uncomfortably long, “what did you do on your world?”

Tess shrugged. “I was a bartender. I mixed drinks for people.”

“Oh. Sounds boring.”

Tess took that as a hint not to tell her any more, which was fine with Tess. It wasn’t like she wanted to get into what she’d done for the Underground.

“What about you?” asked Tess. People usually liked to talk about themselves, even if Ashei was pretty taciturn so far.

“I helped save the world,” said Ashei.

“Wow, cool!” said Tess. Technically, you could say she’d helped save her world, too, not that it mattered now. Seeing that Ashei didn’t seem able to take “wow, cool!” as a hint to keep going, she got a little more explicit. “What happened?”

Ashei lit up. “A guy named Ganondorf tried to take over Hyrule and the monsters he was using turned out to be more stir-crazy than he thought. We had to put them down and take back the country. We’re _still_ rebuilding.”

“Us too,” said Tess. “We had monsters overrun Haven City last year. You wouldn’t believe how many people got eaten! What did _your_ monsters do?”

Ashei shivered almost imperceptibly. “The sun wouldn’t rise for a fortnight. The redeads came and… you know, did what redeads do. Link brought the daylight back and I led the attack that took back Hyrule Castle. A lot of people in Castle Town got sucked dry by the redeads. It was safer out in the wild. Then again, after the sun came back, we had moblins to deal with and they didn’t.” She paused. Then she said, “I still wouldn’t trade places with the city-folk, and I hear the Zora got off easier than all of us. They just got frozen, and they can survive that easy. Anyway, after we saved Hyrule, Link and Zelda and some others fixed up the magic stuff that keeps Hyrule safe, so the good news is we’re safe from the Heartless.”

Tess wanted to be happy for them. She wanted to be glad that Zelda and Ashei had a home to go to when Tess didn’t, but not hating them was as gracious as she felt, let alone being happy.

“Her happiness didn’t cause your grief,” someone said. Tess turned to look for the speaker-- Ellen, she thought-- but there was no one there.

“What? You hear something?” asked Ashei.

Tess shook her head. She couldn’t let anyone think she was crazy, whether or not it was true.

“No, I hear it too now,” said Ashei, frowning. She surveyed the woods a short distance away. “Sounds like footsteps.”

Zelda poked her head above water and waded out of the ocean.

“Did you find any Heartless down there?” Ashei called out once Zelda was within earshot. Zelda shook her head and kept walking up the beach.

“The Sea King would rather we leave this world,” said Zelda. “We might visit the city, though. I doubt he speaks for them.” She used fire and wind to dry off quickly.

“How come he doesn’t want us here?” asked Tess. Before Zelda could answer, Ashei shouted a warning. Something big, gray and furry came running toward them. Ashei scrambled up into the ship’s cockpit. “Get in!” she shouted. Tess got in. Ashei took off for the water and swooped down so Zelda could climb in.

“We’ll fly low over the city,” said Zelda. “If nothing seems amiss, we’ll leave.”


	4. Chapter 4

A blue planet hung in the sky, with swirling white clouds and here and there some land. Some kind of metal, winged satellite passed by them in its orbit.

"Someone's hailing us," Zelda announced. The flat comm-screen showed an image of a green head with a beak and curved horns. The creature spoke to them, but either the signal was scrambled or the language it was speaking wasn't anything Tess knew. Zelda and Ashei looked just as confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," said Zelda.

"You don't speak Galard? Who are you and what is your business on this planet?" demanded the creature.

"I am Zelda, Queen of Hyrule, and I'm here because I'm concerned that your planet might be in danger. I’m here to stop the Heartless from taking over. They're monsters, sometimes formless, and they'll make you into more of them if they can. May I land?" asked Zelda.

Light flashed in empty space. Something hit their ship-- not a solid projectile, either eco or a laser. A gummi block went flying. Ashei cursed.

They sped up, but not in a straight line. Clutching her seat tightly, Tess watched Zelda and tried to figure out whether she was trying to weave back and forth or had lost control. It looked like both.

The next strike hit the wing. Watching from the side, Tess couldn't see the beam of light. Laser, then, not eco.

The air around them ignited when they hit the atmosphere.

"Ashei," said Zelda, "get the potions out and divide them evenly between us. Any force strong enough to hurt us will break the bottles. We'll live."

Ashei handed Tess two potions and Tess cradled them carefully in the arm that wasn't holding onto her seat.

"We'll probably land in the water," said Zelda. Then they came through the clouds and saw that they were too far east, and the ship had all but stopped doing what Zelda told it to.

Tess wondered if, when this was over, she would see her family again. She had the fleeting impression that Ashelin was there with her.

They crashed in the woods. Tess fell out of her seat. The potions she'd been holding shattered. She took a shaky breath and got up onto her hands and knees. They were alive.

Zelda started sobbing. While Ashei just stared, Tess sat up and reached for Zelda's hand.

"Oh-- my gods," Zelda said between sobs. "I-- I almost-- doomed us all."

"It's okay," Tess said quietly. Zelda squeezed her hand and kept crying. "We're not dead. You did it. Go ahead and fall apart now. We're safe."

They might not be safe, but there wasn't any point in saying that.

After a minute or so, Zelda quieted down.

"I'm sorry," said Zelda. "I don't know what came over me."

"Really?" Ashei scoffed. "Didn't that happen to you in the war?"

Zelda shook her head.

"Sometimes you hold it together when something's happening and panic later. Much better than panicking when you need to do something," said Ashei.

Zelda let out a shuddering breath and sobbed again, quietly. Her hands were shaking. "We should look around for this world's keyhole."

"Nuh-uh, you need to take a break," said Tess. "I'll go poke around and see what we're up against. You guys wait here for me, okay?"

"What if you get caught?"

"You mean by the green things? They'll lock me up and I'll use my magic key," said Tess. "Besides, what if the locals don't like you carrying a sword around them?"

"I'll assure them that it's for use against the Heartless," said Zelda.

"Right, because that went over really well with the green guy," said Tess. "Either we all wait here until you feel better--"

"I'm fine," said Zelda.

"No, you're not, you'll get in the way," said Ashei.

"That's not how I'd put it, but she's right," said Tess.

"Then you should take Ashei with you--"

"And leave you and the ship alone? I need you to be here when I get back," said Tess. "Look, if I'm not back by tomorrow, you can leave without me."

"No, we can't," said Zelda. "We need gummi blocks to repair the ship first."

"I'll keep an eye out for them," said Tess.

"Fine. Be careful and come back quickly," said Zelda.

"Of course," Tess promised. She left the ship.

\--

Eventually, Tess found what looked a little bit like a city, but without walls. The houses were spaced several feet apart and most of them had square patches of grass in front of them. Wheeled zoomer-like vehicles zoomed by along the black roads and people walked on the raised gray paths to either side. With the uneven cloud cover, they cast faint, fuzzy shadows that weren't dark enough to hide Heartless. The parked vehicles might be a bigger threat. Tess walked on the right side of the path, the side furthest from the street.

The people seemed normal, except for their ears. Tess kept walking, looking for someone she might talk to, or any sign of the Heartless.

By the time the homes gave way to a business district, Tess's feet were starting to ache and her stomach hurt from hunger.

Ignoring the stares she got (probably for her ears), she walked into a building with a sign out front with two yellow arches. It turned out to be some kind of restaurant. There was a line leading up to a counter where people ordered food, and people were called up by number to retrieve trays or bags. Tess didn't know what the local currency even was, let alone whether they'd take anything she was carrying. But Zelda had told her gold was currency in most places and she was carrying that, plus two blue gems that Zelda said were worth twenty rupees together. (Not that Tess knew what a rupee was.)

She got in line. It looked like there was a menu above the counter, but it wasn't in Precursor, so Tess couldn't read it. She listened to what the people in front of her ordered. Some kind of salad. A happy meal with extra fries. A happy meal with extra ketchup.

Tess was next in line. "I'll have a happy meal," she said, not sure whether she had to order it with extra anything. Could she get away with being cheeky? "With extra happy," she added, before the girl behind the counter could say anything.

"Um," she said, meaning to bring up the currency problem as the pimply girl worked out the price, "so, I'm new here..."

"Of course. Head that way," the girl said, pointing discreetly. "It's in the back of the walk-in freezer."

"Thanks," Tess said brightly, and walked away as if she knew what had just happened. She found the walk-in freezer, walked in, and saw a hidden door in the back wall slide open.

A long, narrow rock staircase led down into a dim cavern. She could hear the distant sound of screaming. Careful not to fall, she started walking. After a while, as her eyes adjusted and she got closer to the bottom of the stairs, she could make out an underground lake. People walked to and from the lake along wide piers.

Tess stopped walking and watched. On one pier, maybe nine out of ten people were dragged to the lake by tall, bladed creatures, and walked away. On the other pier, people walked to the lake, and were dragged away, or walked away sullenly between pairs of bladed creatures. The bladed creatures were taking people to and from the same general area that she couldn't make out from where she was.

There were footsteps behind her.

"Hey, are you planning on standing there all day? I'm hungry," said a man's voice behind her.

"Right, yeah, sorry," said Tess. She started walking again. She didn't want to go down to the lake, but clearly they expected her to want that. Was there anything else she could be seen doing?

She walked purposefully down the stairs. A row of cages came into view, with people in them. Opposite the cages, there was some kind of lounge or open living room.

"Hey," said the man behind her, "if you don't mind my asking, what's up with your host's ears?"

"I'm not from around here," said Tess.

"They've found another species?" asked the man. "Is it Class Five?"

"Yes," Tess said, in a deadpan that might or might not be taken as sarcasm.

"Really? Are you kidding me? Why haven't I heard about this before? Is this a joke?"

Tess giggled. "Of course it's a joke, silly."

"Then what classification are they? For real," he said.

She picked a number less than five. "Three," she said.

"Oh, well, every little bit counts, right?"

"Absolutely!" said Tess. That was enough pieces to put the puzzle together. She understood what the lake was for now.

"So, have you ever been to this pool before?" asked the puppetmaster controlling the man.

"No," Tess answered honestly.

"Want me to show you where everything is?" the puppetmaster offered.

"Wow, would you? That would be great!" said Tess.

She went down the last few steps and stood in the cavern proper, by a pair of bladed creatures that looked just like the one that had fired on their ship. The puppetmaster with a human man's body stepped down onto the floor of the cavern.

"So, as you can see, the pool is there. That's the infestation pier and that's the deinfestation pier. There's nothing over there but the cages. The human lounge is over there; they've got a TV so the voluntaries can watch human entertainment. The Taxxon facilities are through the door on the right. The one on the left leads to the human bathrooms, and I don't know if your host's eyes can see it from here, but over there is the next closest entrance. Oh, and..." He lowered his voice. "Be careful of Visser Three."

"Thanks so much," said Tess. She gave him a huge smile. Bathrooms. That sounded safe-ish. She could claim to be going there, and then leave by the other entrance. (Next-closest? How many others were there?) She could tell Zelda and Ashei and let them decide what to do about this. But then the creature that had shot at them might sound the alarm and they wouldn't be able to get back in.

Tess walked over to the cages as if she knew what she were doing. She did know what she was doing, in fact. She was having a little bit of fun with the big bad monsters.

When she got to the cages that had the bladed creatures locked inside, she summoned the Keyblade and started unlocking. She managed to get to the second one without being spotted, and then the bladed creatures running screaming away from their cages gave her away. Apparently they weren't big on subtlety. Oh, well.

TSEEW! Something sliced through one of the bars of the third cage, right next to her head.

"Don't shoot the hosts, you fool!" someone shouted. "Visser Three will be furious if he finds out you've destroyed Empire property!"

Tess grinned. It was just like Baron Praxis and his Krimzon Guard, except she could leave when it quit being fun.

Some of the free bladed creatures shielded Tess with their bodies while she opened the last cage of their fellows. She moved on to the cages of humans and her guards followed. It was sweet of them, really.

She got out of the way of a stampede of panicked humans.

"No pushing," she told the next cage. "Wait your turn so everybody can get out nice and safe, okay?"

The humans were a mixed bag. Some people panicked. Some didn't.

A bladed puppet got past the creatures guarding her and grabbed Tess. She tried to hit it with the Keyblade, but she was at a bad angle and it grabbed hold of her arm.

One of the free creatures sliced the puppet's throat. It dropped.

Tess saw a knot of people moving carefully toward the stairs, the young and strong on the outside and others on the inside. The outer wall of people parted to let Tess inside. She dismissed her Keyblade to save space.

"Thank you, Andalite," said a middle-aged woman.

"My name's not Andalite, it's Tess."

"Then you're not an Andalite in morph?" asked a man with one arm.

"No, what's an Andalite?" asked Tess.

"They're another alien race fighting the Yeerks," said the man.

"There's a team of them here on Earth," said the woman.

"They turn into animals!" said yet a third person.

The free bladed creatures cut through the guards at the foot of the stairs. They and a flood of humans ran up the stairs. Being narrow, the stairs made a choke point. The humans congregated around the foot of the stairs as one after another was dragged away by puppets.

A pair of bladed creatures came for Tess's group and grabbed a young man from the outside of the group. They pulled on his arms. Those close enough to help grabbed him and pulled backward. Tess summoned her Keyblade and threw it at the head of one of the bladed creatures. It hit. She summoned it again and threw it again.

"Guys, I'm about a minute away from dislocating my shoulders," said the man. Only one of the monsters still had him. It let go, then punched him in the stomach.

"If you were aiming for my solar plexus, you missed it," he growled.

It grabbed for his hand.

"Those fingers are Empire property," he said.

Tess threw her Keyblade again. In close quarters, it was hard to avoid hitting her sudden allies, but she managed. She hit the monster instead. It only got angry.

If she died here, what would happen to the Keyblade? Would it find someone else? Could that other person save the worlds? And if she were caught, would the Yeerks use her to save the worlds? She should have left this alone; now she could easily end up dead. But maybe she could still make everything work out.

She summoned her Keyblade back to her hand and brought it around in front of the young man's neck, almost choking him.

"Let go."

The Yeerk puppet cut the man's head in half from scalp to chin and knocked the Keyblade out of Tess's hands. She let it fall and summoned it again as she pushed past the corpse. The same creature lashed out at Tess and hit her full in the face. She fell back and landed on the corpse, clutching her face. One eye was gone and her cheek was torn clean through. She found what she thought was a chip from a tooth, that, when she spat it out, turned out to be the tip of one of the creature's blades, the same blade that had cut through someone else's skull.

The creature hauled her to her feet. Belatedly, she realized she'd dropped the Keyblade. The creature pinned her arms.

A bird of prey screamed overhead. Its claws raked the creature's face. The creature dropped Tess and she ran. So the Yeerks didn't value their hosts that much after all, but Tess would bet she knew who they valued more.

She dived into the pool and swam toward the center, away from the solid ground where anyone would have to stand to aim at her. She surfaced and looked around. The chaos was mostly clustered in a small area a few times the size of the restaurant she'd come in through, and the cavern itself was huge. Tess looked for another possible exit and found one. She dived back under and swam away from everyone else.

When she got to the exit, she wasn't the only one there. Someone was trying to talk the guards into letting her out as Tess climbed out of the pool. As Tess came up behind the woman who was talking about needing to pick up a child at school for her cover, a couple of men joined them. Tess didn't think the group could overpower the guards.

"No," said one of the bladed guards, taking a step forward. "No one leaves."

The other guard struck its comrade. "For the Peace Movement," it said, and stood aside. Tess stood back while the others started climbing. She brought up the rear. She tried not to let her slimy shoes slip on the rock, and glanced back occasionally to see if she was being followed. The Peace Movement, she thought as she climbed, made the fourth distinct interest group in this conflict, but Tess wouldn’t venture to guess at what alliances existed or what anyone besides the Yeerks and their slaves wanted.

The Yeerk Pool exit turned out to be in a partitioned-off stall in the middle of a bigger room. Someone had left a pair of shimmery purple pants on the floor. Tess followed the others out into a huge building with racks and racks of clothes for sale.

A young woman at a desk called out to them. "Hey! Is everything okay in the, you know, dressing room? Did something happen?"

Tess ignored her, spotted a glass wall, and headed for it. The glass wall looked out on some kind of shopping center, with a big gap in the middle of the floor. When Tess got close enough, part of the wall turned out to be an automatic door. She went through.

When she got outside the building itself, finally, something... happened.

(The Yeerks are onto you,) someone else thought, in Tess's mind. (Get out of the parking lot and turn right.)

Tess didn't have a better idea. She did as she was told.

(Make another right at the corner.) The words blossomed in her mind. They didn't come from a voice, so much as a feeling, a being-that-thought-at-her.

(Now left,) it thought. She made a left.

(Do you see the abandoned human building with boarded-up windows? Enter it,) the voice thought.

Tess stopped in front of the building. She tried to catch her breath, hands resting on her knees.

(It isn't locked.)

She didn't open the door.

(There are Controllers with Dracon beams coming from north and south, and Hork-Bajir poised to ambush you if you try to flee down any of the nearest east-west streets.)

With the words came images, from an aerial view. The word Hork-Bajir matched to a picture of the bladed creatures. Tess entered the abandoned building.

Inside stood a blue, furry thing a little like an arachnideer, with a blade instead of a stinger and the torso of a man.

"Oh, hi," said Tess. "Were you talking to me on the way here?"

(My cousin,) came the reply. This creature's telepathy didn't come in words, not really. It came in concepts, and its idea of family and species were intimately related. (We are the ones Visser Three calls the Andalite Bandits.)

"Nice to meet you," said Tess, smiling. She held out a hand. "Do you Andalites shake hands when you meet people?"

(That is a human custom.)

The creature’s concept of humanity was tied up in concepts of inferiority and helplessness. Tess considered her options.

"I'm not from this planet," she said seriously. "I have no stake in what happens to this world. There are things I and the others with me are looking for. If you were to help us, we would be most grateful. We might feel like staging another attack on the Yeerk Pool."

(Get out of there!) came the telepathy from the Andalite that had guided her to the abandoned building.

(Follow me,) thought the Andalite that was in the room with her.

She followed him.

\--

(Alright, we rounded up about ten of them,) Cassie thought-spoke to Jake.

(I see you,) he told her, flying overhead as a peregrine falcon. (We can’t risk going after any more. Get these to safety.)

(Well, humans,) Marco thought-spoke to the ex-Controllers, (all aboard the Get-Out-Of-Here-Before-Visser-Three-Shows-Up Express.) In his wolf morph, he took the lead. (Follow me.)

Cassie brought up the rear. (Marco,) she thought-spoke privately to him, (I don’t think that sounded like something an Andalite would say.)

(Heads-up,) said Jake. (The people from the crashed ship are heading your way. Try to speed up and maybe you’ll miss them.)

Marco sped up, and told the freed hosts to do the same. 

They turned out not to be fast enough.

Two women stepped out of the trees. They looked human, except for their pointy elf-ears.

“Someone we know might have been caught in whatever emergency you’re fleeing,” said the one with blonde hair.

(How is that our problem, human?) asked Marco. He kept going.

“We’re here to save your world,” answered the blonde woman. She and the other started following him. “We’re concerned that you might be threatened by living shadows that steal hearts.”

(Those could be Visser Three’s new pets,) Marco thought-spoke privately to Cassie. So that the alien woman could hear him, he said, (Describe these living shadows.)

“Yellow eyes and incorporeal black bodies. They might be accompanied by others clad in plate armor,” said the woman.

(How do I know you’re not a Controller?) asked Marco.

“A what?”

(A Controller. A Yeerk.)

“A what?”

(Is this a joke?) Marco demanded. (How do I know you aren’t a Yeerk slug wrapped around that creature’s brain, controlling it?)

The women were silent for a moment.

“That’s not fair,” said one of the ex-Controllers. “You can just keep her for three days to be sure.”

Andalites might have ignored the humans, so Marco and Cassie pretended to pay them no mind.

“Would you be able to tell if you could see my brain?” asked the blonde woman.

(We have another Jara Hamee on our hands,) Marco thought privately to Cassie.

It turned out he was right.

\--

Tess and the Andalite reached the dubious safety of someone’s empty house. There were glass windows overlooking the street in front.

(Be quiet,) the Andalite told her. (The windows project a hologram of an empty room, but this house is not soundproof.)

Tess nodded. Either this was a transparent trap or the Andalites could easily have more holograms in the room, hiding things from her. She sat down on the couch.

(Our goal is to stop the Yeerk invasion of Earth,) the Andalite said. (We know of the entrances and exits to the Yeerk Pool, and we know the names and faces of several human-Controllers. We need information about the living shadows Visser Three has begun deploying against us.)

He had weaponized the Heartless?

“They’re called the Heartless,” Tess said, barely louder than a whisper. “They like dark places, but they can attack anywhere. They steal people’s hearts, and then those people become Heartless. They’re almost impossible to kill without this.” She summoned her Keyblade and held it out for the Andalite to inspect. “And that means I’m the only one who can fight them. Here, take it.”

The Andalite took her Keyblade in both of its delicate hands. Tess let go, moved her hand away, and summoned it back to herself.

(Then this weapon is some sort of holographic projection?) asked the Andalite.

Tess shook her head. “It’s real.” What did it mean that the Andalite thought she might be able to make a solid hologram? Could Andalites do that? “I’ll fight them for you, but I’d like some help looking for gummi blocks. They’re firm, slightly squishy, colorful, they stick to each other…”

An image came to her mind’s eye, and a question from the Andalite.

“Yeah, that’s them,” said Tess.

(We have several, and I will tell my prince of your request. Will you need information on where Visser Three is deploying the Heartless?) asked the Andalite.

“That’d help,” said Tess.

He told her something unbelievable.

\--

Zelda… “woke” to feel the potion evaporating off her skin. She forced herself to get up.

“Well,” she said, trying to ignore what had just happened. “If you see a tall woman with a narrow waist and long, pointed ears, please don’t let harm come to her. Ashei and I need to find her. Tell her not to come back to the ship. That area is too dangerous.”

(We’ll tell her,) the voice in her head promised.

As the wolves and humans started walking again, Zelda started walking with them.

“Where are we going?” Ashei asked the group.

(You do not need to join us,) the voice answered. (Do not come unless you would be willing to kill yourself rather than let the Yeerks infest you and find the information in your mind.)

“Are we?” Ashei asked, turning to Zelda.

“We’ll be out of here soon enough, away from the Yeerks. We can risk it,” she told Ashei. Then she asked the group, “What kind of secret place are we going to?”

(Somewhere safe from the Yeerks,) was the answer.

\--

(The long-eared chick’s friends ran into Cassie and Marco and they’re on their way to the Hork-Bajir valley together,) Tobias told Ax, relaying what Jake had told him. (I guess they got away from the Taxxons.)

In the city below, a desperate newly-freed host spoke urgently into a payphone.

(Human,) Tobias thought-spoke to him, (a group of human-Controllers will turn the corner and see you in ten seconds.)

The man hung up but didn’t move fast enough. A Dracon beam sliced through the air and struck him. Tobias watched them drag him away.

He flew over the city until he found another one, this one a woman being herded into a Yeerk trap. Watching from above, he gave directions. She gave the Yeerks the slip and he sent her to Jake.

He circled the the city and the suburbs, looking for anyone else, but she was the last one. He let Jake know.

After the ex-hosts were all either safe in the Hork-Bajir valley or lost to the Yeerks (mostly the latter), Tess, Zelda and Ashei headed back into town. 

“We could split up again,” Tess said doubtfully. The biggest problem on this world would be finding the Heartless; according to Jake, they were hitting random targets with concentrated attacks, and then pulling back for the rest of the night, leaving most of the town unscathed each time.

“We’ll stick together this time,” said Zelda.

The sun had already disappeared, and the purple and red of the western sky was slowly fading. Most of the light now came from lamps spaced evenly along the streets. Some looked too old to have been built after the Heartless attacks started, and one had gone out. The lights were just far enough apart to rob them of their night vision while leaving vast areas in shadow.

They went in one direction through the suburbs until they came to a business district, then headed back toward the residential areas.

Tess yawned. Wandering calmly around in the dark made her feel every lost hour of sleep, and every aching muscle.

“Over there,” Zelda whispered, gesturing toward some kind of shrubbery. In the shadow it cast, Tess saw the gleam of yellow eyes, perfectly round and blank.

The Heartless melted back down into the shadow. The hedge’s shadow bulged and part of it split off. Tess walked into the yard, followed by Zelda and Ashei. The Heartless would have to rise up and make itself vulnerable if it wanted to get onto the porch where it was clearly headed.

It stayed where it was.

Ashei was lucky the spike that pierced her from behind shattered the potion-bottle. She staggered and healed and turned to face the…

It looked like a dead Hork-Bajir, grey-green with sharp blades and spikes all over. Ashei’s knife struck the broken-heart emblem on what might have been its chest. While Zelda cast a spell, Tess turned her back on the new Heartless just in time to see the old one melt back into the ground on the porch and slip beneath the door.

“It’s in the house!” Tess shouted.

From across the street, there was a scream.

“Tess, this house,” said Zelda. “Ashei, with me.” The two of them ran.

Tess banged hard on the door and shouted for the people inside to wake up.

A woman in a bathrobe opened the door. The Heartless had gone to lurk in the shadow of her staircase.

“The Heartless-- the monsters-- there’s one inside,” Tess said, panting.

“Come in before they get you,” said the woman. Tess stepped inside and headed straight for the shadow of the staircase. When the Heartless peeled itself up off the floor, she whacked it.

Something burned her back. She fell forward and landed on her hands and knees. Just as she was trying to get back up, she felt it again, and this time fainted from the pain.

\--

Tess came to on a sofa in a cool, damp room, surrounded by screams and sobs. Her eyes opened, but not because she opened them.

Her first instinct was to look around, to think about what was happening, but if there was a Yeerk reading her thoughts-- briefly, she thought of the truth of her bartending job, which was far from the worst thing that could come to mind if she was going to think of sensitive information.

She turned her thoughts to zoomer racing.

(Well?) someone demanded in her mind. The voice (for lack of a better word) carried with it a projection of malice and intimidation, like the old Baron would have killed for. Was that what a Yeerk sounded like?

Zoomers. Right.

(Where does this creature come from?) the voice asked.

Jak had been the first to beat Erol in--

Haven City. Sharp-cornered metal buildings, dangerous catwalks, pavement so bad an army could hide in the ditches and potholes.

She hadn’t thought of that on purpose. It had just… happened.

“An inhabited planet the Heartless destroyed recently,” her voice said. “She’s been to regions of space I don’t believe are known to the Yeerk Empire yet, but their navigation is not the same as ours and I don’t know if I could figure out how to translate--”

(Should I give her to someone who won’t begin by making excuses?) asked the menacing telepathic creature. The telepathy, Tess realized, was coming from an Andalite, bigger than Ax, with more tan in its fur.

“No, my Visser. I’ll figure it out,” the Yeerk in Tess’s head promised.

(And how did this creature unlock the cages?) the Andalite asked.

“She used something called the Keyblade. She summons it by…” The Yeerk held out Tess’s hand, but nothing happened.

There was a very tense moment. The Andalite-Controller’s tail twitched. The Yeerk’s fear was like the touch of cold fingers along her spine.

Tess summoned her Keyblade, and the Yeerk closed her fingers around the handle.

Tess dismissed the Keyblade. It vanished.

She felt the Yeerk reach out, tentatively, to her mind, and wanted to shudder in revulsion. It felt like the touch of a KG’s callused fingers on her bare skin, but so much worse now that she wasn’t letting it happen for a mission.

(I own you now,) the Yeerk thought.

_You’re about to own more than you bargained for,_ Ashelin thought.

“Then you’re stuck saving the world,” Tess told her mouth to say. Did the Yeerk hear that, even though nothing happened?

(I heard it,) thought the Yeerk, (but you’re wrong.)

The Andalite-Controller gave the Yeerk orders. Tess listened sullenly. She’d find a way to fight back.

(You don’t have to,) the Yeerk thought to Tess as soon as the Andalite-Controller left them alone. (I’m Temrash Eight-Eight-Nine, not to be confused with Temrash Zero-Zero-One, Temrash Zero-Zero-Two, or any of the surviving Temrashes Zero-Zero-Three through Eight-Eight-Eight, or Eight-Nine-Zero through Nine-Nine-Six.)

Which, Tess thought, must make family reunions fun.

(Our families don’t work that way.) Tess’s body stood up and started walking as the Yeerk thought at her. (Never mind, just call me Nine. The Andalite-Controller is Visser Three, his aura of menace is completely intentional, and nobody except Taylor likes him. You just learn to stay out of his way-- yes, exactly, like Erol.)

Tess’s body started climbing the steps toward the exit.

(So,) Tess thought, aiming her thoughts at the Yeerk and hoping it worked, (you do know what happened to him and the Baron, right?)

(I know. Tess, I see what you did, back then,) thought Nine.

Flashes of memory came to mind. Hotwiring a zoomer. Her brother’s blood spilling onto the stone while she she screamed at him not to die. An airheaded smile at a Krimzon Guard while she served him his drink.

(You were brave,) thought Nine. (But this is different. I don’t like Visser Three any more than you, but officially, he’s not in charge here; Visser One is, and she’s not so bad. It’s complicated and I can’t explain everything right now.)

They came out in the back room of some kind of shop selling dolls, cards and robots. Nine kept Tess’s body walking right out the front door.

(The short version is, Visser Three can control the Heartless. This world is in no danger and we have a way to flee if it were. I’m in his good graces right now and he can’t kill you if he wants to keep your Keyblade,) thought Nine. (And I can get your friends out before he realizes I’ve done anything. They can run, and they can find Ellen’s world if they need to live somewhere safe. You never have to watch anyone you love die, ever again. You’re safe now.)

They passed by a pair of soldier Heartless, clanking like parodies of guardsmen, and nothing happened.

(See? You’re safe. You can have your body back whenever I don’t need it. Want to go back to school?)

Maybe. But she wasn’t about to trust a Yeerk, not when Nine held all the power and had no reason to follow through with any of that.

(But I do have a reason, Tess. I need you to wield your Keyblade. That makes your position nice and cushy. I really don’t care if your friends escape, Tess, really. They’re only two host bodies. We have billions of hosts here on Earth, and we’re about to win the war.)

They came to a house with a porchlight on. Nine rang the doorbell, and a man answered.

“I’m Temrash Eight-Eight-Nine,” Nine said, and then added something that had to be a password, this time not one Tess could have stumbled on by accident. “Can I borrow your truck?”

The man grinned predatorily and fished a key out of his pocket. He said something excitedly in a language Tess didn’t understand.

“Absolutely,” Nine said. “See you then.”

The truck turned out to be the wheeled vehicle on the gently-sloping pavement. The key unlocked the door and started the engine. Nine lowered the driver’s-side window to make room for Tess’s ear, then backed the truck out onto the street.

Unwillingly (it must be Nine’s fault), Tess thought of where the Hork-Bajir valley was hidden. Zelda and Ashei would probably be back there, or at the Pool looking for Tess.

(I could trick them both into coming back with us,) thought Nine. (I could trap them here and I could find a way to follow your memories back to Traverse Town and Ellen’s world, where people helped you, and bring them back as host bodies. And there are things I could make you remember, that you’d rather forget…)

It might have been Nine who brought those things to mind, or just Tess guessing what Nine was thinking of. She forced the thoughts back down, which probably meant they were hers. Nine laughed.

(But like I said,) thought Nine, (I don’t have to. You think about that while we drive. You make your choice.)

Tess didn’t panic. She didn’t even try to think of a way out. She just went over the problem, over and over again, as they drove out of town, until they went off the roads and drove through the unpaved wild-- a zoomer would have been faster then-- and kept her mind open to any ideas she might get. She listed everything she could do-- a short list-- everything she wanted, everything she knew Nine wanted, everything she knew about Yeerks and Visser Three and the Animorphs. The best she had was a plan that would only have worked if she and the others had shared some kind of secret code (which she’d make up as soon as she got away, if she got away, so this couldn’t happen again).

They got to a point where a wheeled vehicle couldn’t keep going, and Nine stopped the truck and got out. They were almost out of time.

Something glittered in the darkness. Nine turned Tess’s head to look at it, and took a couple of steps closer to see what it was.

A keyhole, just outside the entrance to the valley. Tess summoned the Keyblade and was already locking the keyhole as Nine turned away. Nine cursed in her mind and looked back as the Keyblade hit the ground. The keyhole was gone. At least they were safe from the Heartless.

(But not Visser Three!) Nine thought, bringing to mind Tess’s memories of what had happened on Ellen’s world. (You idiot! He’ll blame us. He’s not above cutting off limbs.)

But he needed Tess…

(Not if he can’t control you,) thought Nine. (If I say I did it, he’ll-- no, I won’t say that. But if I say you did it, he’ll ask why I didn’t tell him about-- but if I--) Nine’s thoughts dissolved into incoherent desperation and terror. Tess felt sick to her stomach. Nothing that could happen would be good for Tess. (I can’t run. I can’t stay. Tess, what would you do?)

But why ask Tess, when Tess wasn’t on Nine’s side? And then she realized it didn’t matter whether she wanted to help or not, Nine was reading her thoughts right out of her brain.

(Too bad I don’t have any ideas,) thought Tess. Then she started reciting a list of zoomer racing champions.

(You’re good at coming up with plans; what are my choices now?) Nine asked.

(Nothing,) thought Tess, but she did see that Nine might walk into the valley and try to trick whoever was still there. But if it were Tess in there knowing someone had been taken by the Yeerks, she would set a trap, and she thought the Animorphs or Zelda might have come up with that idea. She refused to wonder whether they would actually have done it.

(How bad will it be if I walk right into a trap?) Nine wondered.

Nine would probably end up dead, and there was no way Tess could lie about that, so she didn’t bother trying to put her answer into words.

(Huh.) Nine didn’t seem too upset. Visser Three would probably have been slower and meaner about it than Zelda and Ashei. Poor Nine. Tess might have giggled. Nine was quiet for only a few seconds. (And what if I just crawl out of your ear right now?)

There was no way Tess wouldn’t just squish Nine. Nine would just keep hurting people, given a chance. Not that that was why she would do it. Nine hurting her already was bad enough.

It hurt when Nine came out. It hurt worse than just having someone inside her head, even knowing it was ending, and that didn’t seem fair but it made Tess sick feeling Nine’s slimy body worm its way out.

Nine fell. Tess ground the body under her heel. Then she squatted down and made sure that Nine would be better off _not_ being squishy enough to survive that. Couldn’t be too careful, after all.

(I saw that,) Cassie said in the Animorphs’ telepathy. Her mental voice was soft and soothing, but Tess just wanted other people’s thoughts out of her head now. (Zelda and Ashei are waiting for you in the valley.)

A big bird shaped like an eagowl took off. Tess waited a while, because she had that choice, before she went to see Zelda and Ashei.

\--

When the three of them rejoined the Animorphs in their new hiding place, they learned the final results of Tess’s actions.

“This time tomorrow, everyone on Earth will know about the invasion,” said Jake, summarizing what several of his warriors had seen. “The Yeerks know their cover is blown. We’ve been lucky so far; while they’ve been trying to keep their presence a secret, they’ve had to leave most of us alone, take it slow. Now they can round people up and drag them to the Pool.”

Zelda glanced at each of her teammates in turn. Ashei grimaced; the tendons stood out in her neck for but a moment. Tess stayed outwardly calm.

“No one is safe anywhere on Earth,” he continued, and looked pleadingly at Zelda without asking outright for help.

“With Aximili’s help, we’ll be able to leave within the hour,” said Zelda. “Our ship has little room, but we won’t refuse anyone use of what space we have.”

Jake nodded solemnly. “If anyone wants to go with them… I won’t stop you.”

The only one of the Animorphs who took any time at all to decide was Marco, and he, like the others, decided to stay. Important individuals among the Hork-Bajir, those who might have been their leaders if they had a society organized along those lines, asked about their destination and lamented when Zelda told them there would be no trees in Traverse Town.

In the end, nine people piled into a cockpit built for three, packed so tightly they pressed against each other and Zelda had barely enough room to steer. They fled to Traverse Town, and no one on the ship spoke a word against Tess.


	5. Chapter 5

They spent three days in Traverse Town to reassure everyone that none of them had been taken by the Yeerks (besides Tess). The new gummi block turned out to be half a Navi-G pair that was supposed to help them go somewhere somehow (pieces of legends of long-forgotten wars were surprisingly unhelpful for figuring out how exactly any of this worked). They restocked on potions, repaired the ship, trained, rested, and finally left.

They landed in the middle of a barren rock plain. Dry desert heat hit them when Zelda opened the roof of the cockpit.

“I thought I saw people nearby,” said Zelda. From space, it had looked like there was a field of tents below them. There wasn’t.

“Should we look around?” asked Tess. There weren’t many worlds left anywhere nearby that weren’t either safe or lost, and a longer trip would be risky without the other Navi-G, which might or might not even exist anymore.

“We’ll stay within sight of the ship,” said Zelda. “If there’s nothing, there’s nothing.”

It wasn’t like there were hills or trees for anything to hide behind. The three of them got out and Tess watched the ground in case they’d landed near the world’s keyhole. It reminded her of the sand desert on her own planet, where she’d spent an hour looking for shelter after her cruiser broke down--

Tess didn’t own a hellcat cruiser and had never driven one out of the city. She’d been to the wasteland before, but the ground had always been packed gray dirt, sterile from all the dark eco that had leeched into it. There _was_ a sandy desert-- had been, before-- but she’d never been there. Had the memory, somehow, been left behind by Nine? That couldn’t be; Nine wouldn’t have been on the same planet as a hellcat cruiser, back when any existed.

The wrongness that signalled Heartless jerked her back to reality. Not just in front of them and to the sides, but behind them, between them and their ship, all clanking tin soldiers with shadow faces. Tess summoned her Keyblade to face the hopeless odds, and threw herself at them.

It was too much, for all of them. Tess had to put herself between Ashei and a Heartless that would have broken her ribs, and instead the claws hit Tess’s breastbone and trailed across her chest, tearing at flesh. Tess hit it hard enough to slam its helmet down against its breastplate.

The Heartless vanished. There was nothing left but the bare ground, the three of them, and their ship.

And a voice from behind her that wasn’t Ashei’s, or Zelda’s. Tess turned to see a woman walking toward them, proud and maybe cocky.

“I thought you could use a hand!” The woman called to them from the distance. Zelda shouted back thanks.

As the woman came closer, Tess could see that she was smirking, that her dark hair was all in perfect order, and that her flawless white skin was as clean as if she’d just stepped out of the shower (and dried off).

“What you’re looking for isn’t here,” she said, smiling enigmatically. “It’s hidden in the secret waterway beneath the sunless town.”

The pale woman was only now starting to sweat. Tess smiled sweetly at her. “Thank you… I think.” She frowned in confusion.

The woman laughed. “Good luck. The worlds are counting on you.” She turned and walked away. And kept walking and walking toward the horizon.

“That was weird,” said Tess.

“No kidding. We should have seen her before,” said Ashei.

Zelda started walking back to their ship. Tess and Ashei followed.

“So she just appeared all of a sudden,” said Tess. She glanced back over her shoulder at the woman, who was still walking. “And she doesn’t want us to know how she did it.” Otherwise, she would have left the way she’d come.

“And she can travel between worlds,” said Zelda. “There’s a hidden waterway beneath Traverse Town, and that world has no sun.”

\--

They found the next Navi-G easily. Figuring out what to do with the portal it opened in the middle of space was trickier.

“Are those stars?” Ashei stared out the window-roof at the lights streaking by.

“I think so.” If they were passing stars, did that mean they were passing planets, too, heading somewhere other than the nearest cluster of worlds? (Did worlds cluster?) The whole thing made Tess’s head hurt.

Abruptly, they came out of the warp portal and into normal space. The first world they saw looked inhabitable, and Zelda took them down to land on an island far to the north of the equator, at about the same latitude as Ellen’s home. They landed outside a walled town, near a forest, and went to look around the town.

The gossip, in a weird but understandable dialect, was mainly about the Heartless. They’d apparently taken around half a dozen people since they’d started appearing.

“There must not be much of a presence here,” Zelda mused aloud. “There haven’t been many deaths.”

“Or they’re someplace else,” said Ashei.

A woman was purchasing pottery. Tess’s eyes landed on her and she couldn’t tear her gaze away. The woman glanced at them, and Tess realized it was the woman from the desert.

“She’s the one that killed me!” someone shouted from just behind Tess’s shoulder, in an accent Tess had never heard before. She looked back, but she couldn’t see who’d spoken. There must be too much of a crowd.

(Besides, people who had been killed were dead.)

Tess was losing it, and now she really regretted not having read about insanity when she had the chance. There was nothing she could do now except pretend not to be crazy and try not to do anything stupid.

(But what was and wasn’t stupid depended on what was happening, and if she didn’t know that because she was hallucinating…)

Zelda and Ashei seemed to have noticed who Tess was staring at. So did the woman from the desert, who finished buying her pottery and turned to Tess.

“Good afternoon, Keybearer,” said the woman, smiling pleasantly.

“Who are you and how did you get here?” Ashei demanded.

“I’ve been looking for this world’s keyhole and I might have found it,” said the woman.

“Thank you,” said Zelda. “...May I ask your name? I’m Zelda, Queen of Hyrule.”

“Pearl.” That didn’t answer any of their real questions. It just gave them a label for the mystery. “The keyhole is hidden. Come with me.”

Pearl walked past them, heading for the city gate, leaving them no choice but to follow.

She led them outside of town, and stopped… nowhere. There was nothing interesting anywhere nearby.

“It’s down that rabbit hole,” said Pearl. “You’ll need to shrink to reach it.” She grinned and took a small glass bottle out of the purse she had tied to her belt. “This is just enough for one person to fit inside. The antidote’s in the hole, on the table.” She held the bottle out to Tess.

Ashei reached for a knife, but didn’t draw it. “If that’s poison, you’re dead.”

“I have just as much interest as you in not losing my heart,” said Pearl, doing a good but not perfect job of not looking indignant.

Ashei watched her closely, and closed her hand loosely around her knife. Tess uncorked the bottle and drank it all in one gulp.

The sight of everything appearing to fly upward as she shrank was dizzying, but didn’t last long.

“Nobody step on me!” she shouted up at them. She summoned her Keyblade and found that it had shrunk, too.

She jumped into the rabbit hole and fell. And fell. She dismissed her Keyblade and called it back, all while still in the air. She threw it up and watched it fall at the same speed as she did, then called it back. She kept falling.

She landed softly on the dirt floor. As soon as she touched down, Heartless started to appear around her.

That was fine. She could fight alone.

\--

When she’d finished her mission, Tess climbed out of the rabbit hole and sat in the tall (not _that_ tall, but taller than her) grass. She couldn’t see Zelda and Ashei yet, but she didn’t expect to, at this height. She ate the cookie she’d found in the rabbit hole. She shut her eyes against the disorienting way everything shrank around her, and when she opened them, she was back to normal. She still didn’t see Zelda and Ashei. She got up, shaky and tired but not achey yet, and looked around. They weren’t there. There was a note with what looked like a bit of blood on one corner, but since it wasn’t written in Precursor, she couldn’t read it.

“Zelda? Ashei? Pearl?” she called. “Zelda? Ashei! Pearl! Anybody?”

She waited. And waited. When the sun was almost setting, she headed for the town to ask around.

“Excuse me,” she said to a guardsman at the gate, “I’m looking for some women who were here earlier. One has long blonde hair and a gray dress, and she carries a sword in a blue and yellow sheath. The others--”

“I’ve seen them,” said the man. “One of them said they were fine on their own and you should go back where you came from. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. That’s all I know. They didn’t go back into town.” He shrugged.

It was implausible, but it didn’t make sense as a lie for him to tell. He couldn’t have any reason to lie to her-- either he knew who she was, and would have to support her, or she was a stranger and he’d have no reason to care one way or the other. He could’ve been bribed, but by who? Visser Three was her only living enemy, really.

Their gummi ship was still out in the open space around the town walls, near the forest. Tess didn’t see Zelda or Ashei there.

She’d ask around town; maybe they were there.

\--

When she finally gave up and went back to Traverse Town, Tess went to ask V if he could read the note.

“Of course; this is a very common script,” said V. “The note reads: ‘Tess the Keyblade Master, from HRM Zelda of Hyrule. I’ve found a way to use the Master Sword to slay Heartless. You’re no longer needed. You can go back home now.’”

“But I _can’t_ go home,” said Tess. “She knows I can’t.” It wasn’t a mistake Zelda would have made, if it was a mistake. “I don’t think she meant this.”

“In that case, if this blood is hers, I could use it to scry on her,” said V. “Come back tomorrow and I will have had time to prepare the spell.”

Tess thanked him and left.

\--

While she was waiting, she stopped by the cafe in First District, and Ashei walked right past her to place an order for some kind of exotic delicacy.

“Ashei! What happened?” Tess asked. Ashei turned and looked at her, confused. “How did you get here?”

“Who are you?” the man asked. He wasn’t Ashei. Tess could see that now. He had the wrong hair, the wrong eyes. His nose was too broad. He’d been her spitting image, but now he didn’t look like her at all.

“Sorry,” said Tess. “I thought you were someone else.”

But she’d seen Ashei, not just someone who looked like her. It wasn’t a normal mistake. Tess felt sick. She kept having these… waking dreams of people who were gone. Ashelin was dead now, Ashei and Zelda could easily be dead and were definitely missing, the deep-voiced woman in the market had…

The deep-voiced woman in the market had claimed Pearl killed her.

And Tess had seen Ellen, too.

So she was seeing and hearing the dead, dead who told her things she couldn’t have known ahead of time, which meant they were really there.

“...Daxxie-kins?” she whispered almost inaudibly. Nothing happened. Was that because she couldn’t control who she saw or heard? Or was it because she could only see or hear certain people? Ellen, Ashelin, Ashei, the deep-voiced woman… All women, three warriors (two heroes), one devout queen, one unknown.

She finished her breakfast, puzzling it over and looking for anything they had in common (height, appearance, age, job?) and never coming up with anything that fit all of them. She’d liked three of them; three of them had helped her; three of them were royalty. 

After breakfast, she went to Second District. They still had a Heartless problem there; if she was lucky, maybe it would remind her of meeting Zelda and Ashei, and she’d see them again and be able to ask them what was happening.

There weren’t many Heartless. Tess jumped down off the roof, like she’d done before when she faced that first Heartless. She thought about Zelda using her sword like a blaster.

“Tess.”

She couldn’t believe her luck. It worked.

“I’m sorry,” said Zelda. “After you save the worlds, go to Hyrule. Tell them that, before I died, I named Lord Eldin my heir. Take the signet ring I left in the ship to prove it, and tell them to crown Lord Eldin king of Hyrule.”

“Okay. That’s your last request?” asked Tess. “Not something about your true love?”

“Politics. Hyrule can’t afford a succession crisis. I assume I don’t need to tell you that, officially, this conversation happened _before_ my heart was lost.” She sighed, and faded away.

Lord Eldin was going to be really glad they’d had this talk, but it was almost completely useless to Tess. Zelda was dead, Ashei was dead, Pearl was a bad guy, and Tess should really have said something about seeing dead people when it could have done some good.

But it was too late now.

\--

V turned out to have some kind of magical see-anything security camera spell, and the blood turned out not to be Zelda’s after all, but Pearl’s.

Pearl, Tess could see when V cast the spell, was in what looked like a high-ceilinged office in a stone building, reading. She seemed to be ignoring the man she had chained to the wall.

“Can you read those papers?” Tess whispered to V, even though she was pretty sure Pearl wouldn’t hear her no matter how loud she got. Pearl had a handful of books open and some loose papers, and who knew whether they might be important?

“I can. One of those books is a weighty tome on the political history of Radiant Garden, and another is entitled The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. The book she is holding is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and having read it I do not recommend it. One of the loose papers appears to list the coordinates of several locations, probably worlds--”

“Read that one,” said Tess. V read. Radiant Garden was on the list as an alternate name for a place called Hollow Bastion. Tess had been to some of the other places. She frowned. Pearl turned a page. “I wonder what’s important about Radiant Garden.”

The prisoner rasped out something in verse about Pearl’s mother. Pearl flinched, and kept reading without acknowledging him. He laughed. It was not a nice laugh.

V started reading aloud from the book about Radiant Garden, talking about the construction of its castle, how each feature of the place was carefully designed to be exactly what was needed in the political climate of the day, given the weapons of the day. So it had some kind of bottomless pit for a moat around it, and the gargoyles had hearts (that they could lose), and the library was famous.

“I’m pretty sure,” said the prisoner, and V fell silent, “you aren’t saying anything because you know it’s true.”

“Say that again,” Pearl snarled. “Go ahead. But verily, I think you’re the one shackled to the wall, and I’m not.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I liked your mother when I knew her. She was very… generous.”

“I could make you shut up.” Pearl glared at her book.

“If you were planning to throw me into the pit, I’d be falling now, not bantering. The fact that I’m still alive says something, don’t you think?” He had to have been there for a long time already: his glowy hair and beard were a mess, long and tangled, and his face looked like it had acid burns in various stages of healing.

“Yes, it’s true, I need you alive,” said Pearl. “For now. But there’s a lot I could do besides throw you off the walls.” She stood, book in hand, took a couple of steps closer, and touched the burns on his face.

He didn’t say anything else. Pearl went back to her reading.

A pit he could get thrown into from over the castle walls, huh?

“Read me the coordinates for Radiant Garden again,” said Tess. V read.

In Radiant Garden, a young man, well-groomed and frantic, came into view. “The situation in Muspellheim got-- worse.” He glanced around nervously.

Pearl nodded, looking irritated.

The prisoner smirked. “How do you plan to watch me and your other captives while you’re gone? It’ll take days to get there and back.”

She didn’t even look at him. “Boy, whatever your name is, make sure none of them escape.”

She strode out of view.

“Muspellheim’s not on the list, is it?” Tess asked.

“It is not,” said V.

Well, then, there was only one thing to do, and Tess finally had a direction.


	6. Chapter 6

As planned, Pearl was gone when the funny-eared mortal girl found her way to Hollow Bastion. At least she got there quickly after she found them; it had taken her so long to start scrying that Loki had started wondering if he’d missed her somehow.

“Hi there,” she said, bubbly but quiet. “I kind of have a beef with Pearl and I’m here to save you.” She waited, watching him expectantly.

“Just me?” he asked. “Or everyone?”

“Everyone,” she said, and the word was equal parts prayer and promise. She lifted the Keyblade. “I’m gonna unlock those with this. Don’t panic.”

He didn’t mock her for treating him like he was fragile or skittish or both. Just a little while longer and everything would be over.

When he was out of the shackles, he made a show of stretching and looking himself over, and discreetly shapeshifted away some of the nerve damage in his wrists.

“If you don’t want Pearl to rule all the worlds, you’ll need to save the Princesses of Heart,” he said. “Seven women, all perfect. Some of them could probably fight their way free-- Her Majesty the Queen of Hyrule, for example.” The Keybearer’s eyes widened, but he ignored that and kept talking. “The only problem is that they all lost their hearts when they were captured. Now they’re nothing but seven corpses that refuse to stop breathing, and unless you’re willing to give up your own heart to save them, there’s nothing anyone else can do.”

It sounded like a lie. It was true, the one island of truth in the entire carefully-crafted lie he was using to lure the Keybearer into his trap. And it sounded like a lie.

“Where are they?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Pearl didn’t exactly give me a tour of the place. I can try to find them for you, but no promises.”

The Keybearer smiled encouragingly. “You’re a lifesaver. Literally. Do you need anything first, or can we go save the Princesses of Heart now?”

“I don’t need anything.” He led the way out of Pearl’s almost-unused office. Maybe he should have asked for something. There were so many things he desperately wanted and he was almost out of time. Maybe later, Hel would… what? Offer him food and water, or a place to stay? Help him? _Recognize_ him?

Probably not.

“So,” the Keybearer said, drawing out the word in the annoying manner of a little girl, “what’s Pearl’s evil plan?”

“Conquer the worlds using the Heartless and the Princesses of Heart, somehow,” he said. That plan was fated to fail, but it made a convincing decoy, all the more convincing because Pearl herself thought it was the end-game.

They stepped out onto a stone balcony. He blinked at the sun’s brightness, outside in daylight for the first time in almost ten centuries. He watched the sky above him, seeing it for the last time.

“Where’d she go?” asked the Keybearer.

“Muspellheim,” he said.

They came to another door and Loki froze. He couldn’t make himself go through and leave the day behind.

“You okay?” asked the Keybearer.

He said nothing and tried to make himself start moving again.

“I’m fine,” he said, when that didn’t work.

“Is something in there?” she asked, sounding childishly worried. That had to be an act.

“No.” How much time could he afford to waste? He had a few hours’ work and, if he was lucky, a few days to do it in. But he might not be that lucky. “I need to rest.”

He sat down with his back to the castle and stared at the sky. Maybe if he never changed back, he could just take off and forget about everything except the wind under his wings and whatever small animals this world had to hunt. He could fly away until Ragnarok.

Except that Ragnarok wouldn’t come until he brought it.

The Keybearer sat down next to him. “It’s okay. We can wait.” She smiled like he was some terrified five-year-old. “Do you want to talk?”

“No. I’m fine.” She wouldn’t believe that. He didn’t need her to. He only needed her not to guess that he had a plan.

“You know, it’s okay if you aren’t fine,” she said. “I’ve never known anybody who was fine right after something like you went through.”

“Oh?” he said. “You think your friends have been through what I have?” Her view of the world was too limited to begin to understand. That couldn’t be helped; she and her mortal friends hadn’t been born-- their parents hadn’t been born-- their thirty-times-great grandparents probably hadn’t been born when Loki was first imprisoned.

“Well, yeah,” said the Keybearer. “Back on my world, we had this… war, I guess.” She frowned. “We saw a lot of stuff like…” She gestured at his face.

He had nothing to say to that. He should be moving, but the thought of going back inside filled him with a dull horror. His thoughts turned away from the plan and couldn’t be brought back to it.

He leaned over the edge and looked down at the castle wall and the sky below. Trying to see the castle’s foundation, he leaned out farther and farther.

“You could fall over, you know,” said the Keybearer.

He gripped the stone tightly and leaned out until his center of gravity was over the open sky. He held on for a heartbeat (half the time between drops of venom, if he had still been under the snake). Then he fell. The wind felt almost solid against him, the castle wall sped by, and he laughed. If he was lucky, the sky would end somewhere. There would be land, or he would fall straight into Ginnungagap, and he couldn’t survive that, could he? He could go and see his daughter now.

Blind panic seized him. Before he knew what he was doing, his wings had caught the air and he was leveling out. He opened a corridor for himself through the darkness and flew through it back to the balcony where the Keybearer waited. He landed awkwardly and shifted his form back to the one she’d first seen.

“Wow,” she said, laughing. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

He smiled. “It’s been a while.” He ached to relive faded thousand-year-old memories, to soar above the castle, to travel even more broadly now than he had before his imprisonment.

Instead, he led the Keybearer back inside the castle. He hadn’t seen much of it before, but Pearl had given him directions-- incomplete ones, he soon realized-- and he led the Keybearer to the place where they had the Princesses of Heart, only getting lost a handful of times on the way.

The princesses’ bodies were unreachable, bound and gagged, behind a forcefield only Loki and Pearl knew how to turn off. Pearl, it turned out, had lied to him about who the princesses were. That in itself wasn’t surprising; what galled him was who she’d taken without telling him.

The Keybearer walked right into the forcefield. Loki sniggered. He shifted his gaze from Sigyn to another princess as the Keybearer glanced back at him. She pressed her hand against the force field. “We have to get past this thing,” she said.

Of course she would want to get the princesses free before she sacrificed herself. It would be pointless not to. The Keybearer would have to think they were going to be able to take care of themselves; Loki would have to seem either unable to help, or unwilling, and either way, she couldn’t trust him.

She would just have to see him free them.

“I have an idea,” he said tentatively. He raised a hand, grimaced as if from effort or pain, and opened a corridor of darkness to let himself in.

Once he was past the force field, he showed the Keybearer an illusion of him untying the Princesses of Heart. The only one he actually untied was Sigyn.

“Why didn’t you use that to escape?” asked the Keybearer.

“I couldn’t,” said Loki. “The chains were magic.” He could have left it there. He didn’t. He just had to tell someone some part of the truth before this was over. “They were made from the entrails of my son.”

She blinked. “Owch. That was mean of Pearl.” Then she frowned, and was quiet for a moment. “Why did she do it?”

He smiled mirthlessly. “Would you believe me if I said it was because I insulted her?”

“Maybe,” said the Keybearer. “ _Are_ you saying that?”

“I might also have confessed to something I didn’t do,” he said. “I was drunk at the time.” He smiled wryly. “And it was plausible. I _did_ think he was insufferable…”

“Did you two have some kind of fight?” asked the Keybearer.

“You could say that.” Loki sighed. “Never mind. What matters to you is that I don’t want Pearl to take over the worlds. To get the princesses’ hearts free, you’ll have to release all the hearts you have inside you by plunging the Keyblade into your chest. I highly doubt you’ll enjoy it.”

“Or survive it.”

He shrugged. “Or you could run away. You could probably pick a world and protect it. If you do, I’m going with you.”

“I wish I could run,” she said. “But I can’t.”

“Yeah. You’re not the only one to want to change fate.” He turned and looked back at the Princesses of Heart and the Keyhole he was about to use them to open.

“That’s not it,” she said. “I’m choosing to do this. I really _could_ run, if I didn’t mind not being able to live with myself. In fact, I’ve already saved more worlds than I used to know existed. I could probably live with myself anyway. I just... wish I had more choices.”

And if she had walked away, she could have saved the worlds and herself. Loki, with effort, didn’t laugh. “And, what, you think you could do anything? You think you could run away, or join Pearl, or just stand there composing epic poetry? You think that any of those things could happen, that the outcome is still in doubt? That if you don’t know what’s about to happen, it’s because it can’t be known, and not because you don’t happen to know it?”

She glared. Suddenly, she wasn’t cute. She didn’t seem young or childish anymore. She was, suddenly, dead serious. “Stop putting words in my mouth. Of course there’s only one way it can go. Because there’s only one way I’m going to _let_ it go. If I wanted to run, I’d run. I just don’t want to.” She let out a breath that wasn’t quite a sigh. “Tell Zelda the ship is on the other side of the… wetlands, you’ll know them when you see them. Take the gondola from the main entrance and just keep going, you’ll get there eventually. I wrote down the coordinates for this world and left them in the ship. Once she knows where we are, Zelda can find Traverse Town. They’ll help you get back on your feet.” Her eyes went to one of the princesses in particular. “That redhead is Ashelin.” She pointed. “Tell her our planet was destroyed. Tell her what I did to save her. Tell her I-- tell her Tess who used to work with the Underground died saving the worlds. I want everyone to know I was a hero.”

She raised the Keyblade. She stood ready, tears making their way silently down her cheeks.

“Oh, and tell Zelda I got her note.”

The Keyblade went through her chest like a knife through butter. She froze. Eight hearts drifted away from her. Tess’s body dissolved like a sugar cube under running water.

Loki started crafting the spell to open the Keyhole. He smelled something burning and turned to see the Queen of Hyrule pull off her blindfold, one hand free and the rope that had bound it lying on the floor, still smouldering. He put the fire out with a thought and grabbed one of her hands just as the other came free of its fire-damaged bindings. She blasted him with ice, then fire, then ice again. He shapeshifted the burns and frostbite away, and in the time that took him, she had already gotten her feet free. While he tried to think of what to do, the queen, who had fought more recently than a millennium ago, knocked the wind out of him with a punch to the solar plexus. She shoved past him, lighting a dark-haired girl’s bonds on fire as she went.

From the nothing and nowhere he’d hidden it, Loki drew the queen’s sword, but whatever fire had lit it before went out and the crossguard snapped down against the blade. He swung, but the sword’s balance shifted and he cut ropes instead of flesh. He tried to hide the blade away again, but it refused to disappear.

The queen burned away the ropes binding a brown-haired girl who looked like she might be from the east of Midgard, if she’d been from Midgard. The girl pulled off her blindfold and looked around.

Loki tossed the cursed sword aside and took a swing at the queen’s head. Already turning toward him, she ducked and rushed forward to tackle him.

He hit the ground and stopped fighting. She straddled him and pinned his hands to the floor. “What are you doing?” he gasped.

Instead of taking a hand off him to pull the tape off her mouth to answer, she used her magic to weather the adhesive until the tape fell off, staring at him all the while.

“I could ask you the same thing. Why did you grab me?” she asked once the now-useless tape had fluttered down to land on Loki’s forehead.

“It looked like you were trying to start a fire in here.”

“I see. Did it occur to you that I was trying to get my hands free?” she asked, giving him a skeptical look.

“Hey, I’m not the one who tied you up, okay?” Immediately, he started second-guessing himself. That was probably too defensive.

“But you _are_ the one who tried to take advantage of me while I was incapacitated, aren’t you? What were you doing?”

Behind her, the brown-haired girl untied a fat black woman. Ashelin stood, one foot further forward than the other and her fists up in front of her chest, glaring down at him. The dark-haired girl reached for where she might have kept a knife and found that it wasn’t there. Loki judged his original plan irreparable and moved on to the first fallback.

“Trying to fix things,” he said. “Trying to find my daughter and get away from--” He broke off, swallowed hard, and, at length, finished, “some people.”

The queen nodded slowly. “Do any of these people live in or know of Traverse Town?” she asked. He shook his head. “I and my companions can escort you there. Maron will have someone make sure you’re safe. Traverse Town has enough warriors and wizards to fight off whoever you’re running from, in the unlikely event that you’re found.”

He shook his head. “I can’t leave my family.”

She smiled kindly. “Once you’re safe, we’ll find them and bring them to you. Just tell us who we’ll need to find.”

“Impossible,” he said. “One is imprisoned, one can’t travel, one is chattel for-- someone, one is dead, one was turned into a wolf, and one dwells in the darkness.” He didn’t mention Sigyn, who was watching quietly. It might be better, at least for now, if the Princesses of Heart didn’t know they were married.

“I might be able to change the wolf back,” the queen said. “Do you know where to find him?”

“I don’t even know if he’s still alive,” said Loki. He hoped Odin would have come to rub it in if anything had happened to Narfi, but maybe Odin had just decided not to tell Loki anything no matter what. Or maybe Odin had forgotten about him. The thought made Loki want to throw up. For reasons he didn’t understand, he hoped the Aesir had cared, even if only to rejoice, that he had been imprisoned, had suffered, so long.

“We can help you look once we’re done saving the worlds,” said the queen.

“Of course,” said Loki. “A deal. One where you get what you want first, and don’t promise any results for me.”

She got up and let him go. “You misunderstand,” she said. “Whether or not you help us in any way, once the worlds are saved, I intend to see to it that someone is sent to find your son and bring him to me. I intend to try to save your son whether you help save the worlds or hide in Traverse Town or try to blanket the universe in darkness until even the memory of life has faded.”

“Really? So, if I showed up in your kingdom with a viking longship full of dead men, you would still want to save Narfi?” Loki sat up, smiling mirthlessly.

“Yes,” said the queen. “I would have to wait until the immediate crisis was past, but yes.”

“And when you go home and find your kingdom embattled and your allies scattered, will you still care about Narfi? Or will you tell yourself there’s nothing you can do?”

“As soon as my immediate priorities are dealt with, I will send Prince Link on another quest,” said the queen. “But none of that will matter if the worlds are destroyed. We have questions for you that we’d like you to answer. Have you seen a woman, very beautiful--”

“Pearl? Yes. She had me in chains for a while.”

That changed the mood of the room. The queen, the boyish one and the fat one all seemed to recognize the name, and the remaining princesses took their cues from them.

“Have you also seen a woman with long, pointed ears and a large key?” asked the queen.

“She died saving you,” said Loki. “She brought me here and died to give you your hearts back so I could fix things.”

“And she didn’t untie us?” demanded the fat one.

“There was no time. There still isn’t. I need to use your hearts-- no, you won’t be turned into Heartless, I just need to use your power-- so I can fix everything.” There hadn’t been time to come up with anything more believable, besides which, he hadn’t known until now who these people were that he would need to fool. The plan was falling apart because it was a hasty, desperate plan that relied almost entirely on luck, and that kind of plan had never worked all that well on anyone except Thor. (And Thrym, that one time. And Idunn, now that he thought about it.)

“What will happen if we delay?” asked the queen.

“She’ll come back,” said Loki. “I have no idea how long we have. She could be back any moment. I need to finish the spell while I have time. Please.”

“Why should any of us trust you?” asked Ashelin.

“Because I’m desperate and I hate Pearl as much as you,” said Loki.

Ashelin shook her head. “Why shouldn’t we assume there are at least three sides in this… whatever this is?”

“I can’t think of a reason,” said Loki. “Either trust me or don’t.”

Plan B was irreparable. The only other plan he had left was to tell them the truth. He’d been hoping it wouldn’t come to that. He improvised.

“I need to use you to raise a Heartless army against Pearl,” said Loki. “It’s possible I could stop her and save the children I have left without destroying all the worlds.” That was even, technically, true. “It’s not a great plan. It’s not even a good plan. It’s just the only plan I have.” He could tell them who they were up against, but then they would know who he was, and who wanted to work with the Ragnarok-bringer? 

“She’s that powerful?”

“No.” He went for the option that seemed at once more likely to convince them and more likely to blow up in his face. “There aren’t three sides. There are at least four.”

“You’d think it’d be simpler than that. Destroy everything or don’t.”

“What are the four sides?” asked Ashelin.

“The seven of you. Pearl, who wants to rule the worlds. Some people who like the status quo. And me.”

“Tell us about these people who like the status quo,” said the queen.

“No.” No one would willingly and knowingly side with Loki the bringer of Ragnarok over Odin Allfather and the Aesir. Unknowingly was the best he could hope for here. “Your Majesty, what do your people think of oathbreakers?”

“They’re not well-regarded,” said the queen. “Why? What oath do you need before you’ll tell me what we’re up against?”

That she saw the trap meant she could just as easily be lying about how Hyrule saw oathbreaking, but Loki was almost out of options, and entirely out of time to think. “Protect my son Narfi.”

The queen considered that for a while, then spoke. “I, Zelda, Queen of Hyrule, swear that I will cause no needless harm to your son Narfi, and that I will do all in my power to keep him safe unless to do so would endanger others.” She smiled and waited for him to answer.

The oath had more holes than swiss cheese, but at least she couldn’t hand him over to Odin just to spite Loki.

“Odin Allfather and his lackeys are after me,” said Loki. Three of the princesses didn’t seem to know who he was talking about.

“Odin is no true god,” said the cripple.

“What the hell?” said the fat, brown one. “Wait, movies or myth?”

Loki looked at her blankly. “Movies or myth?” he repeated.

“Or comics? Tell us more about this guy,” said the fat one.

“He traded one of his eyes for wisdom,” said Loki. “He’s popularly called the Gelding. He can shapeshift, but he can’t grow back his… eye. He’s a seidmadr-- ah, that is, a… wizard, I think you’d call him. Or a witch. He once sacrificed himself to himself.”

“What drives him to practice witchcraft and call himself a god?” asked the cripple. She sounded like she pitied him.

“He’s probably crazy,” Loki said with a shrug. “Anyway, there’s also Heimdall, who can see a hundred leagues away, and Thor, who has armor that lets him wield Mjolnir and dent mountains, and all the rest of the Aesir.”

“What do they want with you?” demanded Ashelin.

“I called the women sluts and the men cowards, and they think I had something to do with Odin’s son’s death. It’s mostly that I insulted them, though,” said Loki. “And I think some of them might believe they can avoid their fate if they just keep me locked up where I can’t do anything.”

Ashelin narrowed her eyes. “What fate?”

“Everyone has the same fate, when you get right down to it,” said Loki. “And they’re right. Now that they’ve made me angry, it really will come by my hand.” He laughed bitterly. “Next universe, I’m going to ignore every prophecy I hear.”

“He’s crazy.”

“Why do you feel the need to hurt them?” asked the cripple.

“Are you deaf, or were you not paying attention? I want revenge,” said Loki.

“Will that save Narfi? Will it change what you’ve already endured?” she asked, quietly.

“Vengeance is important,” Sigyn said, just as quietly. That was something she’d never believed or understood, as far as Loki knew.

“The one true god has forbidden it,” the cripple said.

“What, your god would rather someone else get hurt than you get your hands dirty?” said the dark-haired one. “Wait, is it okay to say that to you?”

“There’s a difference between protecting others and causing needless harm,” said the cripple.

“Stop wasting time,” said Ashelin. “What would Odin do if he thought we were working with you?”

He could try to play up what Odin might do, to convince them (since they apparently all cared about helping people) that he was in danger. But that might backfire, if they decided it wasn’t worth making a new enemy. Or could they decide that? Just what did “hearts of pure light” mean, anyway?

“You probably wouldn’t matter any more to him than a swarm of stinging flies.”

“You said he’s fighting for the status quo,” said Ashelin. “Elaborate.”

“He’s the King of Asgard, and Asgard is the greatest of the nine realms of Yggdrasil. Pearl threatens that, Ragnarok threatens that, and if she stood any chance of keeping her oath, the Queen of Hyrule would threaten that, too,” said Loki.

“And why are you so certain that the seven of us are on the same side?” asked the queen.

“You’re something called the Princesses of Heart,” said Loki. Before he could elaborate, Sigyn spoke up.

“The Princesses of Heart are real?”

He hadn’t known she knew about them; he wasn’t sure whether she was bluffing now or not.

“What are the Princesses of Heart?” asked the queen.

“Seven women with hearts of pure light,” said Sigyn, so apparently she wasn’t bluffing, “somehow important to the fabric of reality.”

“There is much that explains,” said the cripple. “The devil has no claim on any of us?”

“Pearl’s boogeyman? Oh, I’m sure none of you have anything to worry about from him,” said Loki.

“So we can assume we all want the same things, which means we can trust each other,” said Sigyn. She looked at Loki, but gave him no other signals. “If we disagree about what to do, it’s because someone doesn’t have all the information. Does that sound right to you?”

That sounded right, which meant that if he trusted Sigyn, he could probably trust the others. Maybe. Assuming she was right, and assuming she wasn’t just on his side because she was wrong about some fact, and assuming the other princesses could be convinced quickly enough, Loki could definitely trust them.

“You know what? I think I like my chances better if I throw in with you all,” said Loki.

Just as Loki began hammering out an alliance with the Princesses of Heart, Pearl arrived. She had a black eye and first-degree burns over parts of her face. Her left hand was bandaged. Heartless spilled from the portal and rose from the ground around her.

“I can stop her,” Loki said. “What I was doing before-- let me finish now.”

The Princesses of Heart weren’t fooled. That didn’t matter. It was the split-second hesitation he caused Pearl with his show of cooperation, and the fact that she looked away from him to assess the princesses’ reactions, that gave him the opening he needed to sweep her legs out from under her and take them both to another world.

Before they were even acknowledged, he felt Asgard’s wards slam down around them, cutting off their access to the darkness.

Loki’s eyes widened when he saw Heimdall exactly where he expected Heimdall to be. Loki scrambled to his feet and put himself between Heimdall and Pearl, as if he were protecting her. As if he didn’t know what the Aesir would do to anyone Loki wanted to protect.

When Pearl started making threats, Loki let his smile show for the briefest moment.

“Shut up,” he growled, not taking his eyes off Heimdall. “No one wants to hear what you have to say, you contemptible mortal wretch.”

“What the hell are you--”

“Your mother was a whore,” Loki said, interrupting her, “and you’ll never be anything but the filthy proof of her wantonness.” He still kept his eyes on Heimdall. His heart was racing. Even if that little demonstration proved to the Aesir that Pearl was important to him, and even if they didn’t bother to question her, and even if she didn’t escape, Loki had just sealed his own fate. And he wasn’t sure he could face it again.


	7. Chapter 7

When Loki didn’t come back, they left Hollow Bastion together, and all except Ellen went to Traverse Town. Some time after everyone had gotten settled in, Sigyn walked in on four of them discussing what to do next.

“I need a lift,” she said in lieu of a greeting. “I know where Loki is and I want to save him.”

“Who’s Loki?” Ashei asked at the same time as Tierra exclaimed, “That was Loki?”

“Yes, the man you met earlier is Loki.”

“How do you know him?” asked Ashelin.

“We met when he lived in Asgard, the world where I was born. He’s lived on Midgard for nearly a thousand years now, but we met before that,” said Sigyn.

Ashelin raised an eyebrow. “Just how old are you?”

“Immortal as long as I keep eating Idunn’s apples,” said Sigyn. “Loki is simply immortal.”

“How do we get our hands on Idunn’s apples?” asked Ashei.

“They would do nothing for you,” said Sigyn. “You could probably convince Loki to steal some anyway if you wanted, once I free him. I don’t believe they would do any harm.”

“We can free him together,” Zelda offered. Sigyn shook her head.

“Give me a ride there and drop me off. I’ll handle the rest on my own,” said Sigyn.

“And if you find that Loki and Pearl are on some other world?” asked Zelda. “What then?”

“Then I have a way to return here, and either way you don’t want to be seen or followed home,” said Sigyn. “It’s not Asgard, but the world we’re going to is under the Allfather’s sway and Heimdall might be watching.”

“This doesn’t sound safe,” said Ashelin. “You want us to go up against an immortal god-king to save one man who’s already tried to use us to unleash the Heartless?”

“Just drop me off,” said Sigyn. “I don’t need anyone else with me, and I promise I’ll make sure the Allfather never finds you.”

“I don’t like this plan. It’s too risky.”

Before Sigyn could respond, Zelda spoke. “I don’t like it either, but I’m willing to take the risk, and it’s my ship she’s asking to borrow.”

Sigyn smiled disbelievingly. “Thank you so much.”

“Of course. We’ll leave tomorrow,” Zelda promised.

\--

When the two of them set off the next day, Sigyn brought along several potions from the elven witch Vaarsuvius, two of them safe in a drawstring purse. She brought no potions of healing, but a variety of others.

“I know you didn’t tell us everything last night,” said Zelda. Sigyn went cold.

“What do you mean?”

“Loki is more than an acquaintance to you, isn’t he?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” said Sigyn. If Zelda knew, why take her to Midgard? Was this a trap? The princesses trusted each other (some warily) only because of what Sigyn had said when they met. If they suspected she had an ulterior motive, they might decide not to believe her.

“I mean that this is personal for you,” said Zelda. “Am I wrong?”

“You’re not wrong. Over a thousand years ago, I liked him. He’d been everywhere and he had the best stories-- most of them blatant lies, but they were interesting-- and he was a lot of fun, and sometimes handsome, and he had a great sense of humor.” Sigyn smiled and forced herself not to cry. “We fought all the time and he showed me less respect than he showed Odin’s horse. I don’t think it would have worked out. Then he made an ass of himself at Aegir’s party and the Allfather sentenced him to be imprisoned and tortured for eternity. That… changed things.” Though probably not in the way Zelda would guess.

“I see.” Sigyn’s lie must have passed muster, because Zelda didn’t challenge her or ask anything else on that topic. “Why do you think Loki would have taken Pearl somewhere he could be recaptured?”

“I assume it’s because he knows that the Aesir know Pearl freed him.”

“Then it’s not Pearl you’re saving him from, but them,” said Zelda. “And you’ll be going alone, so you and Loki will be the only ones who can know for sure what you find on Midgard. It will be impossible for me to verify anything you’ve told me, or anything you decide to tell me in the future.”

“While you’re at it, might as well add that for all you know, Loki and I could have had a chance to talk before the rest of you woke up, and he could have told me to lie about us being Princesses of Heart.” And Zelda hadn’t chosen to simply confront her in Traverse Town, but to take her out into space alone on a vessel she didn’t know how to use. Worse, while Sigyn had no training in any kind of combat and was out of shape regardless, Zelda was a seasoned fighter carrying the magic sword Queen Ellen had convinced her god to restore.

“No, whatever your reasons for saying that, it’s true. I knew about the Princesses of Heart before you said anything, and I know that Ellen is one. I believe you.”

Sigyn wondered if she was supposed to respond to that. After a while, Zelda saved her the trouble of figuring it out.

“You said before that if we disagreed, it was because one of us didn’t have all the facts. That being the case, _are_ you planning anything I should know about?”

Sigyn laughed. “I could have been lying about that.”

“But it follows logically. If you thought you were lying, you were wrong.”

“I could have been lying about being one of you.”

“And, what, a fit of conscience prompts you to point this out to me?” Zelda glanced back at Sigyn and smiled. “I’m taking a risk, but not a big one. This is a worse opportunity to betray us than others you’ve already passed up.”

Sigyn sighed in relief, not just because of Zelda’s words, but because Yggdrasil was in view now and they were heading straight for Midgard. Zelda had taken them well out of their way, so that they arrived not from the direction of Traverse Town but from nearly ninety degrees away, perpendicular to Yggdrasil’s trunk.

“See that coastline? That’s where I need to go.”

They cut through Midgard’s atmosphere like a shooting star. Sigyn began drinking the collection of potions she’d brought with her, all except the two in her purse. Zelda said nothing and Sigyn said nothing. Even when they landed, Sigyn simply got out of the ship and Zelda blasted off without a word.

Someone (Sigyn guessed Skadi) had sealed off the mouth of the cave, which told her she was on the right track. With her strength enhanced by the elven witch’s potions, she cleared a path for herself and entered.

The chains were new, she saw, and wondered what had happened to the iron bands made from her son. Loki and Pearl were chained not to the rock but to each other, and their chains passed through metal rings anchored firmly in the floor of the cave, with Loki lying on top of her. The snake dripped its venom onto the back of Loki’s head, and trailed along his raw skin to drip down onto Pearl. Both of them were quiet, and both tried to turn their heads to look at Sigyn.

“Did you bring a blade?” Loki asked, his voice strained. “If you break the chains, Pearl will get free.”

She drew a knife and got started. Loki had told her dozens of stories about various Jotnar taking advantage of this quirk of their biology; she knew he’d survive. She knew he’d be fine. She still couldn’t think about what she was doing for fear of being sick.

When Loki was free and in one piece again, he grinned at Sigyn and left the cave. Sigyn stayed behind for a moment, considering what to do about the snake still menacing Pearl. In the end, she left it, hoping the Aesir would realize Pearl wasn’t their ally and stop punishing her for it.

“Where to?” Loki asked.

“Out to sea.” They walked together down to the beach, not running but moving quickly. When they had waded so far into the sea that they could go no farther without swimming, Loki became a great turtle on whose back she could rest.

“Get as far away from land as you can,” Sigyn told him.

Loki raised his head out of the water. “You want us to go over the edge, don’t you? We’ll end up in Helheim.”

“Sooner or later, that’s guaranteed,” said Sigyn.

“We could just walk there,” said Loki. “Then we might be able to leave.”

“We could. And if we were still planning Ragnarok, that would be a good idea, but we’re not. No walking the Hel-road and no bringing Naglfar along to ferry an army.”

“There are faster ways to go than this.”

“This is more poetic. It’s escape, of a sort.” Of a more useful sort than anyone who didn’t know about Traverse Town would be able to guess. “Please, Loki. Just… please.”

“If this is the best I can hope for,” Loki said, and left it at that.

Sigyn let the sun dry her, lying on Loki’s back watching the sky. The elven witch’s potions wore off, leaving her the same delicate woman she had been before. Her muscles ached and her body felt so heavy she wanted to lie there forever, but when she looked out at the horizon, her stomach turned over.

“Skidbladnir!” The Aesir had probably chosen that ship to pursue them in for her speed, and not to taunt them. But it was still a bitter irony that Skidbladnir had been a gift from Loki. Knowing just how fast the ship was, he didn’t bother to try to outrun it. He barely glanced in that direction. Sigyn wondered if he hoped the Aesir might not recognize him.

Skidbladnir came closer and closer, only to suddenly find herself beached on the head of the Midgard serpent, which Sigyn couldn’t quite bring herself to think of as her stepson. Loki shouted his thanks and kept swimming. It might be the last time he saw his son in this life. Sigyn wanted desperately to hold him and to somehow make everything okay, but all she could do was lie there while he left yet another son behind. She couldn’t even tell him she’d found a way for the two of them to survive.

They reached the edge of the world. The horizon cut off sharply, seawater spilling out into the void. Loki shifted back to the form he used most often, that of a handsome man with flaming hair. All trace of his ordeal disappeared, shapeshifted away. He took her hand and they went over the falls together.

They fell. They left the water behind and made no grab for any of the branches of Yggdrasil that they could have hoped to catch and land on. Sigyn tightened her grip on Loki’s hand and used her magic, such as it was, to shift their luck and their trajectory. They fell.

“Brilliant plan,” Loki said when they’d been falling for several minutes. “Now we’ll die of dehydration. Won’t that be fun.”

Sigyn opened her drawstring pouch with one hand and pulled out two small vials of liquid. “One for you, one for me,” she said, and Loki took one of them with is free hand. He stared at it without drinking.

“I’ll wait.”

“That’s not poison.” Sigyn grinned. “Drink it before you hit the ground.”

She unstopped her own bottle of feather-fall potion and drank. Loki followed suit. Soon the atmosphere faded in around them as they fell toward the last-chance world at the gates of the darkness. She watched the round world turn beneath them, largely but not totally barren. A huge, wondering smile spread across Loki’s face. By luck, they drifted down to land lightly in First District.

Loki laughed and let go of Sigyn’s hand to run around the plaza, arms spread as if he meant to fly, although he didn’t turn into a bird. That and his refusal to take on even the most distinguished signs of age made him look like a child. Sigyn found herself smiling and crying at the same time. Later, they could move on. For now, they could just enjoy the victory.


	8. Chapter 8

The (new?) Keybearer woke up for the first time beneath a twilit sky, and when she did, a man was there. He offered her a name and held out his hand to her. _Presumptive close,_ she thought as he opened the portal to what he claimed was her new home. She backed away and summoned the Keyblade, which she held loosely, tip pointing down.

“Sorry, could I talk to you again tomorrow?” she asked. “Now’s not a good time.” 

Her gut was disturbingly quiet. Or-- not disturbingly, because she wasn’t disturbed. In fact, he didn’t give her the creeps at all. He didn’t put her at ease, either. He just existed.

He moved fast. She figured out how to open a portal just in time to put one in his face. Then she teleported out of there to the last place she remembered from the person whose memories she was borrowing. She wasn’t Tess, and she hadn’t been the one to start on the quest to save the worlds, and she didn’t care about the universe (in fact, she was starting to think she didn’t care about anything at all). But, as Tess had known, the worlds needed saving, and if she didn’t care about anything, wasn’t anyone, that didn’t matter. The world needed saving whether she was Tess or Baron Praxis or an empty girl with borrowed memories.

The gummi ship was missing, so she went to Traverse Town to look for Tess’s allies. It struck her, when she arrived, that the music that was always playing seemed to exist in some other world, where it couldn’t affect her. Whoever she was, she thought she might be dissociating, and maybe a little crazy. She saw Maron giving a boy a tour of the town and interrupted to ask about Zelda and Ashei.

“Visiting V,” said Maron, looking at her in confusion.

She went to V’s house and knocked on the door.

Earlier, Loki and several of the Princesses of Heart had met at V’s place.

“I’m glad you made it back,” Zelda said when she saw Loki and Sigyn. “Was Pearl defeated?”

Loki shrugged carelessly.

“I should hope so,” said Sigyn. “I assume she’s still a captive of Asgard, as she was when we left.”

“So we won!” Ashei grinned.

“Even if Pearl doesn’t escape, the Heartless aren’t supposed to be loose,” said Loki. “She has to have damaged reality somehow already. I think I might even know what she’s done.” He made a face.

“What did she do?” asked Ashelin.

“I’m not telling.” Loki grinned smugly and crossed his arms. “Not yet, anyway. I think I’ll wait. In the meantime, Her Majesty here has an oath to keep.”

“People are dying as we speak,” said Ashelin. “You have no right to delay our saving the worlds.”

“So? At least once they’re dead, it’s over,” said Sigyn. “There’s no point in keeping them alive if you won’t make it worth living.”

“You can’t fix things for a corpse!”

“But you--”

“Quiet!” Zelda commanded, as she would at home. “You will both stop fighting immediately. We’re on the same side.”

“You believe her?”

“I knew about the Princesses of Heart before she told us, though not by that name. Yes, I believe her, but that _isn’t_ why I say we’re on the same side. We’re on the same side because we all want a world it’s possible and worthwhile to live in, and we’re already agreed that we’re going to stop the Heartless and save Narfi. We only disagree about which to do first, and given how many of us there are, we could easily work on both at once.” Zelda’s voice got quieter as she went on. Ashelin and Sigyn watched her rather than each other and they both looked like they were calming down. “Now. Loki, tell us everything you know about Narfi’s fate.”

“They turned him into a wolf and had him kill Vali. Then they scared him off.”

“Had him kill Vali? What does that mean?” asked Zelda.

Loki tensed up subtly.

“It means that they turned Narfi into a wolf and bound Vali so he couldn’t escape, then did nothing to stop Narfi,” said Sigyn.

“Liar.” With that, every last person present turned to stare at Ashei. Loki’s eyes widened and his lips pulled back in a silent snarl. Ashei lifted her hands and tried to salvage the conversation. “I’m just saying, that can’t be right. Narfi just killed him for no reason?”

“They cursed him to make him a monster, a mad wolf, obviously. And if you ever call my wife a liar again--”

“You’re _married_?” And she just kept saying the wrong things. What was wrong with her?

“--as long as I live, I--”

“Wait, what kind of curse?”

“--swear I’ll-- I just told you that!”

“Yeah, you said they made him a monster, but what does that mean?”

“It means they took his mind. They didn’t even leave him a wolf’s mind; we could have dealt with that. I don’t know if they lifted the curse when he left, or if he went on attacking.” Loki looked at Zelda rather than Ashei as he explained. Zelda looked interested, and Ashei wondered if she was using magic to distract Loki so he wouldn’t start answering Ashei with blows instead of words. “If they didn’t, he’s probably dead now. It would have stopped him from starting a pack, and I don’t think he could have survived this long as a lone wolf, especially if he kept going after humans.”

“Have the worlds ever not been closed off, since they did it?” asked Ashei. Loki didn’t so much as look at her.

“There was a brief Heartless incursion on Midgard centuries ago,” said Sigyn, “so yes, travel must have been possible at one point.”

Ashei grinned. “We found Narfi.” Loki turned to her again, mouth opening silently. “He looked pretty beat up and he came after us for no reason, but he was still alive a few days ago.”

Loki moved so suddenly when he hugged her that Ashei found herself with her raised fists squished against his chest, ready to block a blow that never came.

“So… you’re not going to kill me?” she asked.

He let go. “Not if you take me to Narfi.”

“No.” It wasn’t Ashei who spoke, but Sigyn. “I’ll go alone.”

“You can’t. Someone needs to open a corridor of darkness and you can’t.”

Sigyn bit her lower lip.

“Where is he?” Loki asked.

“On land near the palace of the Sea King, if I follow Ashei’s reasoning correctly,” said Zelda. “I have the coordinates written down in the ship; I can go look them up for you.”

“No, I think I know where that is,” said Loki. He pened a portal.

“Wait,” said Sigyn. “If what made him attack Vali is its own curse, separate from the shapechanging…”

“It still might collapse when I fix his body. Or maybe they were hasty when they cast it, and it’ll be frayed and ready to come loose by now. Or maybe I’ll be able to peel it away eventually regardless. It has to be superficial; there wasn’t time to really warp his mind, just layer a compulsion over it.”

“You’re assuming they didn’t break what was already there first.”

“That’s an encouraging thought.” Loki grimaced. “Once I find him, I can promise you I won’t leave him, whatever happens.”

“Don’t promise that,” said Sigyn. “Don’t just abandon him, but if you can’t save him, or if you need to leave him for a while to save the worlds…”

“Then I’ll leave him with you.” He gave Sigyn a quick kiss on the cheek and went through the portal.

Not half an hour later, there was a knock on the door.

\--

The Keybearer who wasn’t Tess knocked on V’s door, and when V answered it, she saw that everyone had gotten there safely.

“Tess?” Zelda asked. The Keybearer shook her head.

“No, I’m… someone else.” Tess would have been glad to see Zelda and Ashei alive, but the Keybearer didn’t feel any less empty. But never mind that; the worlds were still in danger. “I have her Keyblade, though. Need help?”

“Of course. Come in,” said Zelda. “How do you come to have the Keyblade?”

“I don’t know. I woke up with the Keyblade and Tess’s memories after she gave up her heart,” said the Keybearer.

“Can you tell us what passed between her and Loki-- that is, the man with glowing hair-- while we were unconscious?” asked Zelda.

“She found out Pearl had him chained up and went to save him. He told her you were the Princesses of Heart and needed her to give up her heart to put yours back, so she did.”

“Why did--” Ashelin started to say, but cut herself off as a dark portal opened. Two people stepped out: Loki, looking well-groomed and solemn, and a young man with a scarred face and missing eye who glanced nervously around the room.

“Everyone, this is my son, Narfi,” Loki said with a tight smile. In some other language, he spoke softly to Narfi. Narfi nodded and walked over to a Princess of Heart that Tess hadn’t met, head down and hands balled into fists, looking as if he were walking to an execution. The Princess of Heart beamed at him and, moving slowly and telegraphing everything, put an arm around him. She spoke to him softly in the same language Loki had just used.

“ _Now_ can we save the worlds?” said Ashei.

While she’d been watching Narfi, Loki had noticed the Keybearer and was staring at her. “You didn’t tell me you’d found her,” he said, gesturing to indicate the Keybearer. “That makes things much simpler.”

“What happened to Tess?” demanded Ashelin.

“She’s gone. This… this is her heart’s afterimage. There are stories, legends really, about the empty shells left behind when strong hearts are taken, but I had no idea they were true. My lady,” he said, now addressing the Keybearer, “if we both get out of this alive, I have questions for you, but not now. Now, there’s a door to the darkness that we need to make sure is closed. It shouldn’t take too long; we’ll just go and lock the door and come back. Assuming that doesn’t make the universe collapse, it should be simple.” He opened a portal. “Shall we?”

She looked to Zelda, who would know whether to go along with the plan.

“I’ll go with you,” said Zelda.

The three of them went through the portal and came out in a colorless world with a pitch black sky. There didn’t seem to be a light source, and they cast no shadows. The Keybearer found her eyes drawn to a pair of white doors at least two stories tall, with colorful stained-glass windows. Finally she noticed Pearl, who seemed insignificant in comparison, tiny and frail and unkempt, but still a threat, standing right in front of the doors.

“I don’t see any illusions,” said Zelda. “It’s just her.”

“Oh, but it isn’t,” said Pearl, laughing. “I finally have enough power to just _act_ , without having to scheme constantly! I’m Pearl, but I’m not just Pearl anymore.”

“Who else are you?” asked Loki. He just stood there, not doing anything. The Keybearer started to move forward, but Zelda put a hand on her shoulder.

“You probably know him, don’t you? He’s hiding now, behind those doors, in the darkness where he dwells. As we speak, I’m channeling more and more of his power!”

Loki grabbed her by the throat from behind. The Loki standing next to the Keybearer vanished, and she and Zelda rushed forward just as Loki was thrown off by whatever magic Pearl was using. The Keyblade deflected most of it and let its bearer keep her footing, but Zelda stumbled backward and Loki hit the doors.

The doors were opening. Pearl laughed, and looked and sounded nothing like herself.

When Zelda swung the Master Sword, it turned aside at the last second. Pearl smiled, not the mockery of a sweet smile she’d worn before, but something else.

The gap between the doors was nearly as wide as a person, and Pearl had her back to it, but she kept deflecting their blows without moving…

From behind, Loki launched himself at her, grabbing for her with flaming hands. Pearl whirled around to face him and knocked him back. He screamed, his head hit the door, and he fell. Before Pearl could turn to face her other opponents, the Keybearer had already barrelled into her. They both went down, Pearl half on one side of the doors and half on the other.

The Keybearer felt as if something struck her in the chest. She went flying backward and hit the ground. She heard a noise from Pearl that was halfway between a scream and a laugh, and when she got up she saw that a man in green had stabbed down through Pearl’s chest with a golden Keyblade. Darkness swirled around Pearl as he tossed her over his shoulder into the shadowy land beyond the door. Gold bracelets flashed at his wrists as he grabbed the doors and pulled. “Lock her in!” he shouted just before the doors closed all the way.

The Keybearer leveled her Keyblade at the doors and locked them from afar. They faded from existence; a moment later, it wouldn’t have been possible to guess where they had been.

Zelda knelt by Loki, green dancing around her hands almost like eco as she healed him. By the time either of them looked at the Keybearer, she was already drifting away. Somehow, she had ended up standing on a patched metal floor that was now making its way lazily through space. Zelda just stared; Loki swore in some foreign language and opened a portal.

“Get in!” he shouted. “Hurry!”

Zelda disappeared inside the portal. The Keybearer couldn’t jump the gap to reach the ground Loki was standing on, and he didn’t wait for her.

\--

Loki’s portal brought him and Zelda back to V’s house in Traverse Town. “You’ll have to move fast if you want to make it home. Get to the ship, I’ll explain later,” he said. “Everyone whose world hasn’t been destroyed needs to get out of Traverse Town now. The rest of you are going home.”

Sigyn was the first to react, leaping to her feet and translating his words for Narfi.

“Is that why the Keybea--?”

“Yes.”

Zelda and Ashei hurried out the door. Loki tried to open a portal and found that he couldn’t. He motioned for Sigyn and Narfi to follow him as he ran after Zelda and Ashei.

“Zelda!” he called after her. “Can your ship carry all of us?”

Zelda glanced back at them. “We’d be glad to have you!”

They managed to reach the ship before Traverse Town began breaking apart, all the accrued bits and pieces of dead worlds trying to fly away home.

\--

After all landmarks faded from view, the Keybearer lay back and closed her eyes, and at some point dozed off. She woke to the tainted smell of the port’s water, the green sun high in the sky above her.

“Tess!” she heard Daxter exclaim. “What just happened? Did something just happen?”

She sat up and saw Daxter and Jak looking at her oddly.

“Seriously,” said Daxter. “I thought we died for a minute there. Hey, wait, you’re not Tess.”

“No,” she said. “I’m not.”

And that was that.


End file.
